PROCEEDINGS OF THE 
SEVENTH CONFERENCE FOR 
EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH 



/^ 6 




Glass _JLi 
Book I 



PRESENTED BY 






PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



CONFERENCE 



FOR 



Education in the South 



THE SEVENTH SESSION 



Birmingham, Alabajma 

April 26th to April 28th 
1904 



ISSUED BY THE COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATION 

Room 1S05, No. 54 William Street 
NEW YORK CITY 

1934 



?-x-> 






Gift 
Publisher 
1lAp'05 



EDITORS PREFACE. 



The unavoidable delay in securing some of the more important 
manuscripts has delayed the publication of this volume. It is 
hoped that the Report will prove, however, an adequate record of 
one of the most interesting and most valuable sessions of the Con- 
ference for Education in the South. 

As the editor of the Report was prevented, by illness, from at- 
tending the session, it is not unlikely that errors will be noted. Its 
publication has been possible only by reason of the kindly coopera- 
tion of Dr. Wallace Buttrick and Dr. George S. Dickerman; and 
the editor takes this opportunity to express his sincere apprecia- 
tion of their courtesies. 

It should be remembered, however, that the Report of the Con- 
ference has been made possible not by editors or speakers, but by 
those who builded the Conference itself. Among these, acknowl- 
edgement should be made to the people of the City of Birmingham 
— especially to Dr. J. H. Phillips, Superintendent of Schools. To 
his untiring and patriotic interest, to his wise foresight and signal 
executive capacity, it is largely due that the Seventh Conference 
for Education in the South attained high and honorable rank 
among American educational gatherings. 

. E. G. M. 

Montgomery, Alabama, 
December 3, A. D. 1904. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGH 

Editor's Preface 3 

The Address of Welcome 9 

By the Hon. T. G. Bash, Binniii^Iiam, Ala. 

The Annual Address of the President i^ 

By Robert C. Ogdcn, New York City. 

The South and the Negro 27 

By the Rev. Bishop Charles B. Galloway, Miss. 

Report from Mississippi 39 

By the Hon. H. L. Whitfield, Miss. 

Report from Tennessee 4-o 

By the Hon.. S. A. Mynders, Tenn. 

Report from South Carolina 48 

By the Hon. O. B. Martin, S. C. 

Report from Alabama 53 

By the Hon. Isaac W. Hill, Ala. 

Report from Louisiana 5 7 

By the Hon. James B. Aswell, La. 

(5) 



6 " The Conference for Education 

PAGE 

Report from Southern Education Board in North 
Carolina 6i 

By Dr. Charles D. Mclver, N. C. 

Report from Southern Education Board in Virginia... 67 
By Dr. H. B. Frissell, Va. 

Report from Southern Education Board in Louisiana. . 75 
By Dr. Edwin A. Alderman, La. 



Industrialism and Literature 81 

By Dr. C. Alphonso Smith, N. C. 

Standards of Admission to Southern Colleges 90 

By Dr. J. B. Henneman, Tenii. 

The Unfulfilled Ambition of the South 98 

By Mr. Walter H. Page, N. C. and N. Y. 

Business Session m 

Election op Officers 112 

Local Taxation for Public Education 114 

By H. O. Miirfee, Ala. 

Local Taxation in Georgia 118 

By the Hon. W. B. Hill, Ga. 

Address by the Rt. Rev. William Lawrence, D.D 121 

Address by the Rev. J. C. Cooper, D.D 122 

Address by the Rt. Rev. W. C. McVicar, D.D 126 

Address by Mr. George Pierce Baker 128 

The Right of Local Taxation 131 

By the Hon. Sydney J. Bowie, Ala. 



Contents 7 

PAGE 

Address by the Rev. H. C. Cummings, D.D 142 

Address by Dr. Charles D. McIver 144 

Address by the Rev. Anson Phelps Stokes, Jr 147 

Address by Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson 150 

North and South in the Conference for Education... 154 
By Dr. John Graham Brooks, Mass. 

The Present Situation in the South 160 

By Dr. S. C. Mitchell, Va. 

Some Impressions of the Conference 167 

By the Rt. Rev. Davis Sessums, D.D., La. 

Address by Gen. Rufus N. Rhodes i8i 

Adjournment 183 



REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



Seventh Session of the Conference 
for Education in the South 



OPENING SESSION 

The Jefferson Theatre, Birmingham, Ala., 
Tuesday, 8 p. m., April 26, 1904. 

The Conference for Education in the South was called to order 
in the Jefferson Theatre at 8 P. M. by the President, Mr. Robert 
C. Ogden of New York City. 

The address of welcome was delivered by the Hon. T. G. Bush 
of the city of Birmingham, Alabama. Mr. Bush spoke as follows: 

T. G. BUSH. 

Birmingham and the State of Alabama are to be felicitated 
on this gathering within their limits of so many men of various 
calhngs from all sections of the country, prominent in their re- 
spective fields of labor, many of whom enjoy an enviable national 
reputation. The people of Birmingham' have waited with pleasura- 
ble expectation your coming, and feel that your presence and de- 
liberations will be helpful and inspiring. Upon this occasion, when 
Spring is upon us in all its emerald beauty, when there is resurrec- 
tion of hfe in the material world, it is fitting that we should be 
filled with fresh and vigorous thoughts on subjects that concern 
the welfare of mankind, and receive new life and inspiration in 
such a noble work. 

The object of this meeting is well known in this community 



lo The Conference for Education. 

and throughout the country. One of its chief characteristics is 
that it is composed of men and women of culture, of wide experi- 
ence, broad views devoid of selfishness, and hearts beating with 
sympathy for the needs of their fellowmen. Whether we be 
Northerners, Easterners, Southerners, or Westerners, and however 
much we may differ on some subjects by reason of difference of 
environment, customs and education, we can all stand on one 
commonvground on questions concerning the uplifting of people 
of all classes in morals and education. Bad morals and illiteracy 
are our common foes. It is fortunate for the well-being of the hu- 
man race that where Christian religion and civilization prevail, 
the means for the development of the moral, mental and physical 
nature of man are being provided in an enlarged and broader way 
as time progresses. Never in the history of the race in the leading 
nations of the world has so much money been expended and so 
much time been given to the development of the people of all 
classes in these three important features — the trinity of man. 

Christian men seem to have vied with each other in all sections 
of the country in providing means for the moral development of 
the people, and as the result of these efforts we see dotted over 
the land, in the valleys and on the hillsides, places of worship — 
modest though they may be in many sections — and in the great 
centers of population in the cities of our country, magnificent piles 
which have been erected and dedicated to Christian worship and 
the teaching of Christian religion. Along with these great pro- 
visions for bettering the nature of man there have been millions 
spent in great educational institutions, both religious and secular, 
and no less amount in proportion in homes for the sick and afflicted. 

But in the last two decades probably the greatest response 
to the needs of the people has been found in provisions that have 
been made for the education of the masses, until we have arrived 
at the point where the great cry is that every man and woman, 
and every child of school age in the land, should receive some form 
of education, and as far as possible be fitted for the field of 
labor that lies before them. The great effort to educate the masses 
has taken form in what is known as the public school system. 
And while this system with its present methods as adopted by 
the States and communities of this country is comparatively new, 
yet the idea that education of the children should be provided for 



T. G. Bush. II 

by taxation to support schools free to all, was the fruit of the seed 
sown by the early colonists in this country when they began to 
realize the importance of self-help and the need of an educated 
people. 

From the time when the little school in Dorchester, Mass., 
in 1635, was organized to be supported by taxation on certain 
designated property, the idea of public schools supported by taxa- 
tion began to expand and develop. Very soon the spirit was 
caught by other communities in Massachusetts, and little by little 
it has grown as our population has increased until we find in the 
present day and generation a system that is the marvel of the 
world and the very foundation and bulwark of our great republican 
government. 

Along the line of march of this educational movement great 
men here and there have encouraged it and given new inspiration, 
and from the days of Benjamin Franklin, whose influence was so 
great for American education, more and more attention and aid 
have been given to this important work, this illustrious man having 
been the originator of public libraries in establishing the first 
library, known as the Junto, at Philadelphia. He recognized the 
power of the printed page and inaugurated a scheme for the in- 
struction of children at a time when the ability to read and write 
was not common in the colonies. Franklin did not go so far as 
John Adams in providing schools for the masses, supported by 
taxation. Franklin encouraged educational and intellectual de- 
velopment and lent his influence in that direction. Adams, how- 
ever, was very pronounced for general education, and wrote in 1775 : 

"The whole people must take upon themselves the education 
of the whole people, and must be willing to bear the expense of it. 
There should not be a district a mile square without a school in it — 
not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the ex- 
pense of the people themselves." 

Thus we will see that the education of the masses becomes a 
care and duty of the state. It will not do in this time and genera- 
tion to depend upon self-education. We find some splendid speci- 
mens of self-education in the lives of men like Horace Greeley, 
Abraham Lincoln, Robert Fulton, Thomas A. Edison and others, 
but conventional education is the safest, as against the plan of 
self-education. Dr. J. L. M. Curry said, in an address on education: 



12 The Conference for Education. 

"Let me affirm with emphasis, as an educator, as a patriot, 
as an American, that on universal education, or free schools, depends 
the prosperity of the country and the safety and perpetuity of the 
Republic." 

These views are against the idea that individual donations 
must be relied upon. We have varied instances of generous, broad- 
minded men, who have been favored with wealth, giving in a most 
potential way to the establishment of great educational institu- 
tions. These have been conspicuous in the past, but that class is 
becoming more impressed now with the fact that they hold their 
great wealth in trust and many of them are willing to use it for the 
good of their fellow men. We have just been reminded since 
Andrew Carnegie began to seriously consider the question of using^ 
his great wealth for the help of others that he has spent so far $ioo,- 
000,000. Prominent rich men like John D. Rockefeller and others 
have given and are still giving their millions for educational pur- 
poses, showing they realize that the best development of our peo- 
ple must come along educational lines. This kind of help is neces- 
sary for establishing and sustaining great educational institutions. 

It is not my purpose to discuss this important subject other 
than to refer to the great stride which has been made in the educa- 
tion of the children of this country in the last two decades. It is 
interesting, however, to note that as shown by the school statistics 
of the United States, in 1902 there were enrolled 16,000,000 of 
pupils as against 6,800,000 in 1870. The percentage of persons 
five to eighteen years of age enrolled was 71.54 per cent in 1902 as 
against 57 per cent in 1870. 

It is particularly noticeable that the attendance during the 
session of the schools has risen from 4,000,000 in 1870 to 11,000,000 
in 1902. A great increase has been noted in the length of the school 
term. In 1870 the average term of all schools was 132 days; for 
the year 1902, 145 days. It will also be noticed from the statistics 
that twenty-two years ago the percentage of male teachers was 43 
per cent, while the past year it had fallen below 28 per cent. Those 
who know something of the influence of woman in the formative 
period of a child's character will not feel that the country has gone 
backward in this change. 

But I would more particularly refer to the development in 
the South as to conditions which have attended education as pro- 



T. G. Bush. 13 

vided in the public schools of the Southern states and the wonderful 
progress which has been made in the efforts of our people to reduce 
the percentage of illiteracy. It is hardly necessary to refer to the 
time when interest first began to develop in connection with the 
public schools in the South, more than to say that the impoverished 
condition of the Southern people following the Civil War prevented 
for a time the Southern states and communities thinking of any- 
thing other than to gather themselves together for the heroic 
struggle which they faced, as they contemplated the fact that life 
must be begun over again under the most distressing conditions of 
poverty. The South has not always been behind in matters of 
education, barring the establishment of public schools. Dr. J. L. 
M. Curry in speaking upon the topic "Education in the South 
Before the Civil War," said: 

" In proportion to the population, taking man for man, negroes 
excluded from the population, the South sustained a larger number 
of colleges with more professors and more students at a greater 
annual cost than was done in any other section of the Union. The 
same was true of its academies and private schools. In the matter 
of public schools sustained by taxation and free to all who choose to 
attend, the South was far behind the North in the provision for uni- 
versal education. No plans adequate for universal education existed." 

He further states in his address: "When the Confederate 
soldier furled his flag at Appomattox there was not a Southern state 
that had its system of public schools, but now in organic law and in 
statutes universal education is recognized as a paramount duty. 
The newspaper press gives effective and intelligent support; party 
platforms incorporate public schools in the political creeds; state 
revenues are appropriated; local communities levy taxes; and 
scarcely a murmur of dissent is heard in opposition to the doctrine 
that free government must stand or fall with free schools." 

It must be remembered that these words were spoken twenty- 
three years ago — when I suppose that Dr. Curry, with his optimistic 
views as to the provisions that would be made for the education of 
our people, could hardly have believed that such strides would be 
made as have been witnessed in the last decade. 

You will probably on this occasion be more interested in the 
changes which have taken place for the past two decades in the 
Southern states. 



14 The Conference for Education. 

The enrollment of pupils of all ages in the public schools in 
creased from the year 1879 to 1902 nearly 300 per cent. Alabama, 
for instance, in the year 1870 had 141,312 enrolled ; in the year 1902, 
365,171; and there was a corresponding increase in the amounts, 
expended for public schools. Alabama in 1870 expended $370,000, 
and in 1902, $1,057,905. It is quite interesting also to note that 
there has been a marked decrease in the percentage of male illiterates; 
in the Southern states since 1880. For instance, in Alabama the 
percentage has been reduced from 49 per cent, to 32 per cent.;: 
Tennessee, 36 per cent, to 20 per cent.; Georgia, 48 per cent, to 29, 
per cent.; North Carolina, from 46 per cent, to 27 per cent. 

As an evidence of the increasing ability of the Southern states 
to better care for the uneducated, I call attention to the assessment 
of property in this state, which increased from 1880 to 1903, 120 
per cent. We have reason to believe that the South has just 
entered upon its industrial development, and that very great im- 
provement will be made in the agricultural interests. You have 
but to note that in the year 1880 there were only 584,000 cotton 
mill spindles in the South; now we have 6,900,000. If you could 
have visited this section of Alabama thirty years ago, you would 
have seen a sparsely settled country, apparently devoid of any 
prospects for the future, as against this marvelous, vigorous city 
of but a few years' growth, with the wonderful mineral development 
surrounding it. 

We realize fully that with better education we will see the de- 
velopment of better citizenship, a higher conception of civic duties, 
a better understanding of the needs of the state, and power to dis- 
criminate as to character and capacity of men seeking office. An 
educated electorate is what every state needs and must have. 
Education gives us a higher conception of the rights of others, and 
thus a better understanding between employers and employees. 

The legislature of Alabama has taken cognizance of the condi- 
tion of child labor and has placed some restrictions on the employers 
that will be helpful to that class of labor. There is yet more to be- 
done in that Hne. This legislation means better educational ad- 
vantages for that class of labor. 

We hope through your presence and encouragement to be 
stimulated to greater exertions in self-help. That is the great 
object to be obtained in perfecting and enlarging our school system. 



T. G. Bush. 15 

We care but little for outside aid beyond good wishes, kind sugges- 
tions and words of encouragement. Any kind of pecuniary aid 
that would lessen our determination to see to it that ultimately 
all children of school age should read and write, and be aided to 
further advantages that would best fit them for their respective 
fields of labor, would be hurtful. 

The present constitution of this State permits local taxation 
for school purposes, and I believe the sentiment is being built up to 
that end. Direct aid by appropriations from the United States 
treasury would, I fear, be harmful, and sooner or later would 
interfere with the splendid systems that prevail in the different 
states. Valuable aid in the way of donation of lands to the states 
has been given in the past, and I think would be helpful in the 
future to the extent of the government's resources in its ownership 
of lands within the different states. 

It may be that the people of Birmingham are charged with 
being materialists by those who are only familiar with our city and 
district in a general way. The fact that from a housetop in the city 
smoke can be seen ascending from twenty-four furnace stacks, and 
the existence of sixty-one coal mines with numerous ore mines near 
these furnaces, all within the limits of this county, to say nothing 
of the steel and rolling mills and various manufacturing plants, 
would make it seem that the mind.'' of our people are fixed most 
upon business enterprises. But when you come to know some- 
thing of the public schools, with their splendid systems, and the 
hospitals for the care of the sick and helpless, the churches, and 
other philanthropic institutions, you will conclude that they are 
indications that Birmingham people have a mind and heart for 
other things than the accumulation of money. We have cheerfully 
opened the gates of our city and the doors of our homes to our dis- 
tinguished friends and visitors in order that we may know them 
better and love them more. The city is yours. I think we will 
find that in the bosom of the citizens of the New England states, 
the Middle states, or the Western states, the same kind of heart 
beats that goes out from those who hve under the Southern sun. 

I had as well tell you a secret, as you will evidently find it out 
before you leave the city. When you see the women of our city and 
community, and know all their noble charitable works, their culture, 
their graciousness, and their sweet hospitality — you will be ours. 



1 6 The Conference for Education. 

Following Mr. Bush's address of welcome, Mr. Robert C. 
Ogden delivered the annual address of the president of the Con- 
ference. Mr. Ogden said: 

ROBERT C. OGDEN. 

This is the Seventh Annual Conference for Education in the 
South. The small numbers at the three earlier convocations and 
the intimate social conditions of meeting made explanatory open- 
ing statements superfluous. The three later conferences have as- 
sembled under completely changed circumstances and each with its 
own special conditions. The wide-lying distances between the places 
of annual meeting, the greatly enlarged audiences, the varying 
personnel, the deepening interest, the national repute and widening 
influence of the Conference, have combined to make some account 
of its history and explanation of its character necessary for the infor- 
mation of each assembly that greets it with the welcome and hos- 
pitality of a new locality. 

It was not my privilege to be an original member of this Con- 
ference for Education in the South, but in its second year I enlisted 
in the service more through personal loyalty to Drs. Curry and 
Frissell than because of any clear conception of its purpose. Exam- 
ination of the printed records of the Conference reveals the spirit 
in which it was created and the fidelity with which its vital essence 
has been preserved. 

Organized altruism must incarnate an ideal. Without spiritual 
life a fraternity becomes decadent. Therefore to assist us in the 
duty of continuing unimpaired the essence of this Conference it is 
well to recite some brief sentences from the expressions of faith and 
experience recorded by its former assemblies. 

At the first meeting in July, 1898, the Conference made the 
following assertion by resolution: " Upon the principle that if one 
member of our Union of states suffers all the members suffer with 
it, the duty of the whole country to foster education in every part 
is manifest." In June 1899, the Conference recorded the opinion: 
"That the education of the white race in the South is the pressing 
and imperative need, and the noted achievements of the Southern 
commonwealths in the creation of the common school systems for 
both races deserve . . . the sympathetic recognition of the 
country and of the world at large." in April, 1901, the Conference 



Robert C. Ogden. 17 

"reaffirmed its conviction that the overshadowing and supreme 
public need of our time as we pass the threshold of a new century is 
the education of the children of all the people. We declare such 
education to be the foremost task of our statesmanship and the most 
worthy object of philanthropy." In April, 1902, the declarations 
of the Conference opened with the words : "The unending campaign 
that this Conference met to further is a campaign not only for the 
free education of all the people, but for free education of such 
efficiency as shall make the coming generation of citizens of the 
Southern states the best trained inen and women that an enlight- 
ened democracy can produce." 

Each of these statements rings true to its predecessor; each is 
a link in a chain that, as it lengthens, not only retains all its original 
strength of principle, but creates a broadening environment of 
influence. This influence finds expression in several forms. 

The Southern Education Board, the eldest child of the Con- 
ference, is now in the third year of continuous and earnest activity. 
It appeals by many methods to the people and educational authori- 
ties of the various states for an improvement of all conditions of 
public instruction — an organized propaganda, inspired by a zeal 
for the uplifting of the whole people physically, mentally, spiritually, 
through the beneficent power of education. 

Associated with the Southern Board through a community of 
membership is the General Education Board, only a few months 
younger. From the office of this Board a constant investigation 
of local and state conditions, of institutions of every class, is going 
forward. It is already quite important to every worthy institution 
seeking private aid to be registered in the office of the General Edu- 
cation Board. Increasingly as the public understands the intel- 
ligence and justice that mark all its statements is the value of its 
endorsement prized by both donors and recipients. The Board has 
a national charter under which to administer such funds as may 
come to it for distribution. 

These two boards are unique in character, original in forms of 
organization, peculiar in both the necessary division of responsibility 
and the unity of the work to be done. At some points each is vital to 
the other, and again each has responsibility that the other could 
not discharge. 

Many in this audience have some information concerning these 



1 8 The Conference for Education. 

boards, their personnel and their aims. FamiHarity with their 
interior detail is essential to a comprehension of their character and 
scope. Few have this knowledge. This is my apology for a some- 
what lengthy reference to a subject upon which this Conference 
should be fully informed. 

It is a misfortune that I am at once a member of both boards 
and a presiding officer of this Conference. I will cheerfully admit 
apparent indecorum in my allusions to the boards. But these 
allusions are demanded by imperative duty to the audience and 
also to the larger public who will follow the record of these proceed- 
ings. The entire country has a debt of obligation to the executive 
secretaries of these boards. Press and platform give their utter- 
ances to the people of this land, the results of careful study, upon 
topics that deeply concern the national welfare. The men in the 
boards hold opinions that sometimes are divergent — rightly so, for 
they often represent distinct geographical, professional and econ- 
omic points of view, honest discussion of which leads to accurate 
conclusion. But these groups of men see eye to eye with a mutual 
confidence in aim and motive so strong that the tie that binds can- 
not be broken. Out of it all comes "unofficial statesmanship," 
sound, constructive, patriotic, that also finds printed expression 
and vocal utterance. 

And now the aim of this unorganic organization is reaching 
the third stage of evolution in the kindred or associated State or- 
ganizations. Virginia has just created an educational commission, 
a similar movement is taking form in Alabama, and the process will 
naturally go on from state to state. A community of interest will 
prevail. The form of it doth not yet appear. The conference Hves 
happily with its children, the boards, and such will continue the 
relation with its grandchildren, the local committees born of the 
boards. 

The several agencies connected with this movement for better 
public education and the atmosphere created by them is producing 
a valuable literature that photographs conditions. It is sometimes 
unwelcome. Irritating facts appear. Forbidding statistics emerge. 
Shall we oppose strength to strength? Shall we accept or decHne 
the issue presented? Shall we be overcome of evil or shall we over- 
come evil with good? The best inspirations of Hfe are born of the 
stern command of duty. The golden age of peace and good-will, 



Robert C. Ogdcn. 19 

consequent upon universal wisdom, is far away, but here and there 
in many places throughout this sparsely settled land, from the far 
away Appalachian hills, from factory towns, from rural townships, 
from firesides, fields and shops is coming the demand for larger 
knowledge. Thus like the ringing of silver bells at evening comes 
the hopeful harmony that shall make the yoke of service, aye, and 
the burden of effort, light as we help fellow-Americans to the liberty 
that is the child of knowledge. 

While the Conference is exceedingly simple, its membership 
voluntary and unconditional, its policy broad and liberal, it should, 
because of its powerful influence, be considered very seriously. In 
a very actual sense it is a dynamo and storage battery, unseen but 
potent, imparting power to many official, institutional and indi- 
vidual agencies that working in sympathy and harmony are creat- 
ing greater educational Hght with the people at large and generally 
improved educational conditions. 

Quite appropriate it is to notice that this Conference is very 
strong because of its very slight constitutional basis, and extremely 
simple official life. Truly of it may be said, "the letter killeth but 
the spirit maketh ahve." With no creed but that of social service, 
with no condition of fellowship save that "whosoever will be chief 
amongyou,let him be your servant, "with no small detail to distract 
from devotion to an object so evidently grand as to require no argu- 
ment to any noble mind, its simplicity is wisdom, its weakness 
strength. While I make explanatory statements as to the rationale 
of the Conference, I make no argument for its right to exist. Such 
argument would but feed wilfully blind prejudice and thus would 
defeat itself. 

The question is frequently asked, "Why should there be a Con- 
ference for Education in the South?" It is assumed that the 
absence of sectional educational organizations in the East, North 
or West implies that this one in the South is superfluous. It is an 
open question, not germane to our present purpose, whether the 
country would not be helped by other conferences similar in char- 
acter to this. Detailed discussion, past and to come, based upon 
ascertained and proven facts, indicates a very special and unique 
demand for this Conference. 

Credit for the original suggestion that created the Conference 
belongs to a New England clergyman, the inspiration came from 



20 The Conference for Education. 

the Lake Mohonk Indian Conference. The quick approval, cordial 
response and personal co-operation from many Southern statesmen, 
clergymen and educators is spontaneous evidence that the demand 
had a basis in fact. 

The Right Reverend Thomas U. Dudley, the Protestant Epis- 
copal Bishop of Kentucky, was the first president, and the Hon. 
J. L. M. Curry, of Alabama, was his successor. The Hon. William 
L. Wilson, president, and members of the faculty of Washington 
and Lee University, professors from the University of Virginia, 
representatives from various institutions for both races, prin- 
cipally in Virginia and North Carolina, with a few Northern 
friends, made up the earlier membership. The executive work 
needed for the creation of the Conference was performed by Dr. 
Frissell, but it is quite likely that its survival of the Capon Springs 
period was entirely due to the earnestness, frankness, comprehen- 
sive grasp of conditions, and masterful presentation of facts by 
Dr. Curry and President W. L. Wilson. A few of the hearers 
were so deeply impressed that when the crisis of changed conditions 
appeared it was resolved by certain persons that the Conference 
must live — and it has lived, without the aid of an incubator. 

From these great leaders our earlier lessons were learned. 
They were men of plain speech. We would hardly dare follow in 
their train with descriptions of illiteracy, the limited facilities for 
popular education, the educational apathy of a large portion of the 
people, the small public resources and the consequent limitations 
upon the revenues for public schools. Equally frank were they in 
stating the causes of the conditions — slavery, the poverty resulting 
from the sacrifices of war, the disintegration consequent upon recon- 
struction measures which General Armstrong has epitomized as a 
"bridge of wood over a river of fire," the exacting demands of 
economic reorganization, the universal strain of labor for livelihood; 
the various questions presented by the presence of two races under 
peculiar conditions, strangely separated but curiously united in the 
same civilization. 

The emphatic statements in the first convocations of conditions 
and causes lead clearly to the conclusion that this Conference for 
Education was called into existence by the needs of a situation 
peculiar to the South. 

Dudley, Wilson and Curry no longer appear in the meetings of 



Robert C. Ogdcn. 21 

the Conference. We reverently pronounce their names in a minor 
key as we take up the movement to the measured echo of their 
forward march. Our hnes of inspiration run backward to these 
men. The vitahty of their testimony inspires further investigation 
and the accumulation of facts develops a field so broad and a need 
so great that we may respectfully question whether they ever 
comprehended the immense proportions of the case now being so 
rapidly revealed. 

The conditions of education in the South have furnished a field 
for interesting study to many educators. The discussions of this 
Conference and the administration of the two boards have evolved 
a spirit of investigation. Great service has been rendered not only 
by the secretaries and some members of the boards, but also by 
presidents and professors in the universities, by governors and 
educational executives in various states. The great original sources 
of information are the United States Census and the reports of the 
United States Bureau of Education. But the knowledge derived 
from these great storehouses of statistics is made luminous, popular 
and instructive, through the painstaking work of the aforesaid 
trained observers whose artistic faculties of analysis and combina- 
tion transmute dry facts into living pictures, artists whose arith- 
metical pigments are wrought into compositions that touch the 
heart-strings of all who love the land we live in and the children 
who are the makers of future America. 

The results of such study demonstrate again that this Confer- 
ence for Education is a concrete response to an existing need of the 
South. But more than this — familiarity with the facts cannot fail 
to prove the right of the Conference to an ever-growing abundant 
life. 

The claim that although this organization is adapted to the 
particular need of one section of the country, it yet should command 
the interest of good Americans throughout the land, is without 
doubt well founded. A sympathetic response may be expected 
just in proportion to an intelligent understanding of the conditions. 
Evidence of this appears in the opening passage of Dr. William 
De Witt Hyde's review of the educational progress of the year, pre- 
sented at the annual convention of the National Educational As- 
sociation at Boston last July. It reads: 

"Throughout the South, under the wise guidance of the South- 



2 2 The Conference for Education. 

ern Education Board, with the judicious aid of the General Educa- 
tion Board, and mainly through the heroic efforts of the Southern 
men and women themselves, a movement is going on which has all 
the enthusiasm, the diversified agencies, the massing of forces, the 
raising and expenditure of money, the distribution of literature, 
the organization of conferences, the utilization of the press, which 
mark a great political campaign. Out of this united effort are 
coming increased appropriations by the states, a great extension of 
local taxation, improved schoolhouses, consolidated schools, great 
free summer schools for teachers, improved courses, lengthened 
terms, higher salaries, better teaching, expert supervision. This 
is the most hopeful feature of the educational progress of the year; 
and at the meeting of the National Educational Association in New 
England, here in this city of the Puritans, it is an especial privilege 
to award the well-earned palm of greatest educational progress 
during the year to the splendid labors of our brothers and sisters 
of the South." 

An explanation of the life of this Conference would be deficient 
and misleading if it failed to recognize that the Conference owes 
much of its continued growth and broadening influence to the 
sympathy and support of the higher institutions of learning. The 
great universities and some of the leading colleges of the North have 
been represented in the membership 3-ear b)^ year, and the higher 
institutions of learning in the South have been constant and gener- 
ous in their sympathetic aid. But the Conference is not merely an 
organization of educators. It is a popular body. Business men 
and professional men, public-spirited citizens, patriotic women, 
good people of various stations in life, attend the meetings in such 
numbers that no buildings used for the sessions in the several cities 
that have thus far made the Conference welcome have been equal 
to the audiences desiring to attend. It is thus far unique. Asso- 
ciations for the promotion of local public interest in education or in 
some special study are not rare. Great professional organizations 
exist, notably the National Educational Association, with its splendid 
executive equipment and truly national character. But it has 
remained for this Conference to command the direct interest of 
eleven states and sympathetic representation from as many more 
in a movement to influence the people, and especially the rural peo- 
ple, in the development of a larger interest in and inteUigent demand 



Robert C. Ogdcn. 23 

for improved popular education. This fact is so significant and 
important as to require especial attention and wide publication. 

The ordinary citizen has a duty to perform in respect of public 
intelligence. Democracy is a social organization. Political liberty 
demands a solemn surrender to social service. No man rightly 
understands the truth of democracy until he recognizes its demand 
for the greatest nobility of self-sacrifice. True democracy is Christ- 
like; its essence is that of charity and love; it suffereth long, and is 
kind; envieth not; vaunteth not itself; seeketh not its own; is not 
easily provoked. It has been said, by whom I know not, that the 
greatest American failure is found in the lack of civic self-sacrifice, 
that the greatest American success is the development of certain 
individuals of the highest type, and the greatest American hope is 
that the body politic may rise even by the slow process of social 
■evolution toward the ideals presented by these prominent indi- 
viduals. 

It is the duty of a conference to confer. This convocation will 
fall far short of its opportunity if the several representative groups 
of citizens here assembled fail to get a more accurate conception of 
mutual relations and responsibilities in respect of public education, 
and especially of rural public education, in the South. To be more 
direct, I would say to my brother men, men of my own group — 
business men, men in trade, manufacturing, transportation, finance — 
that we especially have lessons to learn at this Conference. As a 
rule we have not cared to be informed upon our civic duties. In 
more than one sense we have considered ignorance the synonym of 
bliss. To educators and educational officials we have been too 
much content to leave the whole question of public educational 
responsibility. Too apt we are to pay our taxes with reluctant 
tardiness after swearing down an appraised valuation, thus justify- 
ing the satire that in so doing we exercise the highest and most 
sacred right of citizenship. 

The question often rises unbidden, "Why should I pa}^ taxes 
for the education of other peoples children?" The question sup- 
pressed begets degradation of spiritual life even though it hold the 
mirror of truth to personal meanness. The question uttered is less 
ignoble, for only error born of ignorance would inspire expression 
to the thought. Perversity is more blameworthy than ignorance. 
How true the epigram coined by one of our number, "Ignorance 



24 The Conference for Education. 

cures nothing." Whatever the cause, brutahty or vacancy, for 
opposition to taxation for education the result is the same— intel- 
lectual race suicide. 

The proposition seems clear and accurate that the one supreme 
and special end to be secured here is the sympathetic accord of the 
citizen, the educator and the official. The place is appropriate. 
Business is pregnant in this city of Birmingham, that proudly 
echoes back across the sea the name of an adopted parent, both 
proclaiming throughout the world the triumphs of brain and brawn, 
of progress and prosperity; Birmingham the antiphon of Pittsburg, 
the great industrial center of the New South, the municipality that 
in two decades has placed Alabama second only to Pennsylvania 
in the production of iron. The vicinage reminds us that commerce 
is the servant of education and civilization. Fitting, then, the time 
and place in which to recognize the dictum of the highest educa- 
tional authority in this country that business is to be numbered 
with the professions, and that the distinction is not merely a grace- 
ful courtesy. It is the recognition of a condition that pervades all 
education. Manual training, domestic science, the fine and indus- 
trial arts as parts of primary and secondary education, economic,, 
scientific and technical training for business in the higher institu- 
tions — all recognize the fact that the world's work demands techni- 
cally instructed workers. 

The aristocracy of education has passed. The importance of 
the average citizen is more than ever apparent as the experiment 
of our democracy proceeds in its evolution. Not the least present 
evidence of this fact is the appeal of this Conference to the business 
man and the chance here given him to get a broader and better 
definition of democracy. And there is something beyond this. 
If the statement already made concerning the attitude of higher 
education to business is true, the indication is plain that scholarship, 
recognizing the sentiment born of the social and economic forces of 
the present age, is holding forth the right hand of fellowship to 
business. Time was when soldiers and ecclesiastics furnished the 
majority of the people's heroes, but the time is now when captains 
of industry, masters of finance, creators of communication and 
transportation, will supply the men whom the people dehght to 
honor. 

Fitting, then, the time and place for business men to recognize 



Robert C. Oii^dcn. 25 

the door of opportunity held open by the hand of education. From 
this place let intelligence, statesmanship and social service contra- 
dict in tone and terms that cannot be mistaken the bad ethics and 
worse policy involved in the fallacy that taxation for education is 
a sacrifice for either the citizen or the corporation. The acquisi- 
tion of knowledge by the mass of the people has material and eco- 
nomic value. Real progress pauses for the popular recognition of 
the fact. This Conference has a serious share in the perception of 
the fact and the expression of the reply. 

Enough has perhaps been said to indicate the ease of associa- 
tion and co-operation between the educational and material pro- 
fessions. What, then, of the official? The complaint is not local 
nor confined to places dominated by either of the great political 
parties that politics are the bane of public education. The com- 
plaint has a large basis of truth, and the difficulty should be removed. 
This complaint, like many others upon which pessimism fattens, 
sings loudest from the silent places of the evil. The demands of in- 
telligent public sentiment considerately enforced have omnipotent 
power. Between the teacher and the official stands the citizen. 
Let him extend a kindly hand each way and the magic power of 
intelligent sympathy will twist the three-cord cable of progress 
so strongly that it may not be easily broken. 

Out from the Hampton School there went, years since, a good 
negro that by sharing the knowledge gained at the school with his 
neighbors of both races doubled the potato crop of his county. On 
the same principle there are school districts and whole counties 
scattered through the South in which one educated, forceful, tact- 
ful, white citizen, beginning single-handed and alone, has so inspired 
teachers, officials and neighbors as to increase a hundredfold the 
quality and quantity of public education. A single phrase settles 
the point in our present discussion. It voices itself to each delin- 
quent, "Go thou and do likewise." 

And now, assuming that the historic spirit of the Conference 
is understood, that its right to continued existence because of a 
prevailing need is admitted, that its parental relation to other 
organizations has not been obscured by explanation and that 
larger opportunities for usefulness are clearly before it, I have the 
privilege to commend to your consideration the admirable program 
prepared by the vice-president of the Conference, a citizen of Ala- 



26 The Conference for Education. 

bama and executive secretary to the Southern Education Board, 
Mr. Edgar Gardner Murphy, with the assistance in an hour of need 
of Dr. Wallace Buttrick, secretary of the General Education 
Board. 

It may be very readily said that the speakers make the program. 
In a sense they do. But what of the man that must bring topics 
and talkers into symmetrical succession, through worry and work? 
The distinguished men needed for such an occasion as this are 
human and the unexpected is the only absolute certainty. Thus 
it comes about that the maker of our program, dealing with men 
from remote places, finds that sickness and unforeseen obligations 
enter the most distinguished circles and many kaleidoscopic changes 
must occur before a proper program confronts the audience. There- 
fore I ask appreciation for the labor demanded by the executive 
work for the intellectual repast that the succeeding sessions of this 
Conference have reason to expect. 

For a few moments more I must ask your attention to a sorrow- 
ful topic. We are here this evening by invitation from the state of 
Alabama. All who were at Ric'hmond a year since will recall the 
presentation of this invitation by several citizens of this common- 
wealth. Prominent among them was the Hon. Joseph B. Graham, 
of Talledega, field agent of the Southern Education Board. Al 
that heard his cordial message will recall the grace and sincerity 
of his utterance, the charm of his manner, the attractiveness of his 
personality. Also we remember the forceful style of his later 
address upon local taxation for education. Little did we then 
expect that coming here in response to his invitation, we should miss 
him from the ranks of welcoming friends. In the early days of 
July last, just as he was about starting from his home city for a 
journey in the interest of the Board, his precious life was suddenly 
taken by a railroad accident. Explanation of the mysterious 
Providence that removed him in all the rich maturity of his splendid 
young manhood is impossible. 

The sympathy of this Conference goes forth to the desolated 
home. His associates in the work for the people personally mourn 
for him, and. the cause to which so much of his effort was devoted 
is poorer in its loss of his unique power and unselfish devotion. 
This Conference is young in years, but is yet old enough to have a 
sacred roster of noble names of those who have passed from the 



Charles B. Galloivay. 27 

field of active work. Bright in this golden list so long as our per- 
sonal memories shall last will shine the name of Joseph B. Graham, 
As we close up the ranks and accept the legacy of added responsi- 
bility created by this latest bereavement let the solemnity of duty 
find inspiration from the fidelity of his great example. 

The president of the Conference, having completed his an- 
nual address, then introduced the Rev. Bishop Charles B. Gallo- 
way of Mississippi, who spoke as follows upoii^" The South and the 
Negro." 

BISHOP GALLOWAY. 

The subject of this hour's discussion is not of my selection. 
With the honored invitation to accept a place on the program of 
this great convention came also the request that I should speak on 
"The South and the Negro." The distinguished honor of this 
request was accorded, not because I have capacity to speak on this 
subject by the authority of fuller and more accurate knowledge 
than others, but rather because I live in the South and am a friend 
of the negro. 

Some acquaintance with this section and its citizenship I ought 
to have gained from life-long residence and eager observation and 
unwavering devotion. From my birth to this good hour I have 
lived in Mississippi — the most intensely Southern of all Southern 
states — and where, because of their immense numbers, the so- 
called "problem" of the negroes is most acute. It is, therefore, 
not for want of opportunity, if I lack information, or am possessed 
of misinformation. 

I shall speak to-night with perfect candor, if not with approved 
wisdom, and I appear not as the partizan of an idea, but as an am- 
bassador of the truth and a lover of my country. 

In offering some thoughts on the subject assigned I shall not 
review ancient history, but consider present conditions. It is time 
for us to cease discussing who is most responsible for American 
slavery. Present duty has been neglected in an acrimonious wran- 
gle over history. For, after all, the only difference between the 
South and the North on the slavery question is the difference be- 
tween father and grandfather. My father was connected with 
slavery, and so was their grandfather. Our memories are only a 
little more vivid because somewhat shorter. 



28 The Conference for Education. 

I would not presume to speak dogmatically as to the mind of 
God with reference to the future status of the negro. Into that 
infinite and holy realm I have neither capacity nor temerity ta 
enter. On what specific lines the race will move through the com- 
ing centuries, I dare not attempt to prophesy. But I do know 
that all our deahngs with these people should be in the spirit, and 
according to the ethics, of the Man of Galilee. What is best for 
them now should be the measure of present duty, leaving the future 
to His hands who knows the end from the beginning. And we must 
insist that the negro have equal opportunity with every American 
citizen to fulfil in himself the highest purposes of an all-wise and 
beneficent Providence. 

Whatever the cause or causes, there is no disguising the fact 
that there is great unrest and growing discontent among the negroes 
of the South. They are beginning to feel friendless and hopeless. 
The frequent lynchings that disgrace our civilization, the advocacy 
by some of hmiting to the minimum the school advantages provided 
for them, and the widening gulf of separation between the younger 
generations of both races, have produced a measure of despair. 

There are few negroes in my native state of Mississippi, the 
owners of property, who would not sell out at a fair valuation. 
Many of the thriftiest and most conservative feel, whether justly 
or not, that sentiment is so hostile to their race as to make all their 
values insecure. And as opportunity offers they are quietly leaving 
the sections in which they have long lived and labored. 

We need not close our eyes to the inevitable. We are soon 
to face industrial disaster unless conditions are radically changed. 
Our cotton lands will lie fallow and our fertile fields cease to yield ■ 
their valuable staples. Already the scarcity of labor is the despair 
of large landowners. 

To improve or remove these strained relations is the duty of 
every Southern patriot who believes in the industrial and commer- 
cial future of these parallels. 

Unfortunately for this question, and for the best interests of 
both races, it has not been eliminated from local and national 
politics. So long as it furnishes an easy and exciting issue for con- 
tending partizans, there will be little opportunity for constructive 
statesmanship to deal wisely with the stupendous problem. 

It requires but little abihty to excite the fears and inflame the 



Charles B. Galloivay. 29 

prejudices of a people. Any street urchin can shout "Fire!" and 
stampede an audience, even when there is no danger. And if there 
be some occasion for alarm, the panic becomes wild and uncon- 
trollable. Then it is men refuse calm counsel and wise suggestion. 
So it is with the social and political issues that may be used to play 
upon the fears of the masses. 

The old cry that "white supremacy" may be imperiled is a 
travesty on Anglo-Saxon chivalry. With every executive, judicial 
and legislative office of the state in the hands of white people and 
with suffrage qualifications that have practically eliminated the 
negro from political affairs, the old slogan is the emptiest cant. 

This is no question for small politicians, but for broad, patri- 
otic statesmen. It is not for non-resident theorists, but for prac- 
tical publicists; not for academic sentimentalists, but for clear- 
visioned humanitarians. On a subject of such vital concern to 
state and nation, passionate declamation and partizan denuncia- 
tion are to be deplored. Oh, that some patriot may arise, with the 
prescience of a statesman and the vision of a prophet and the soul 
of an apostle, who will point out the path of national duty and 
guide our people to a wise and heaven-approved solution of this 
mighty problem! 

But for some of the acute phases of this question the South 
can be acquitted of blame. The once beautiful and pathetic 
attachments of the older people of both races were rudely severed, 
not alone by the shock of war, but by the fanatical unwisdom of 
certain boasted benefactors. 

Mistakes that have become a tragedy were made by some 
misguided persons who came South after the war to be the political 
teachers and leaders of the negroes. Representing themselves as 
the only friends of the recently emancipated race, they made 
denunciation of former slave-owners an apology for their presence, 
and a part of the negro's education. That policy only complicated 
the difficult problem. It poisoned the spirit of one race and aroused 
the fierce antagonism of the other. Hate was planted in hearts 
where the seeds of love should have been sown, and races that 
ought to dwell together in unity were separated by bitter hostility 
The times of such folly are gone, but their tragic results are our 
mournful heritage. 



3© The Conference for Education. 

In the study of this momentous question some things may be 
considered as definitely and finally settled; 

First. — In the South there will never be any social mingling 
of the races. Whether it be prejudice or pride of race, there is a 
middle wall of partition which will not be broken down. 

Second. — They will worship in separate churches and be edu- 
cated in separate schools. This is desired alike by both races, and 
is for the good of each. 

Third.^The political power of this section will remain in 
present hands. Here, as elsewhere, intelligence and wealth will 
and should control the administration of governmental affairs. 

Fourth. — The great body of the negroes are here to stay. Their 
coerced colonization would be a crime, and their deportation a 
physical impossibility. And the white people are less anxious for 
them to go than the negroes are to leave. They are natives and 
not intruders, 

Now let us consider some of the duties we owe these people,, 
committed to us as a trust. 

First. — They must be guaranteed the equal protection of the 
law. To do less would forfeit plighted faith and disrupt the very 
foundations of social order. All the resources of government 
should be exhausted in protecting innocence and punishing guilt- 
There should be no aristocracy in crime. A white fiend is as much 
to be feared as a "black brute." The racial line has no place in 
courts of justice. Offenders against the peace and dignity of the. 
state should have the same fair trial and the same just punishment, 
whatever their crime or color of skin. 

And the majesty of law must be enthroned and sustained. 
When its sanctions are disregarded and its mandates are not re- 
spected the very foundations of government become insecure. If 
confidence is destroyed in the decisions of courts there is no protec- 
tion for life and property. We have reason for real alarm at the 
phenomenal growth of the spirit of lawlessness. And it is not 
confined to any one section of our great country. I give it as my 
deliberate judgment that there is never an occasion when the 
resort to lynch law can be justified. However dark and dreadful 
the crime, punishment should be inflicted by due process of law. 
Every lyncher becomes a law despiser, and every law despiser is a 



Charles B. Galloivay. 31 

betrayer of his country. The lynching spirit, unrestrained, in- 
creases in geometrical progression. 

But there are indications of a better day. After our night of 
sorrow, there is promise of a more hopeful morning. Our best 
citizens are becoming alarmed and public sentiment is being aroused. 
A camp of Confederate veterans in Mississippi, composed of heroic 
men who feared not the wild shock of battle in contending for what 
they believed to be right, recently passed some vigorous resolutions 
against this spirit of lawlessness, in which occur these strong words: 
"Mob violence is antagonistic to liberty, and ultimately leads to 
anarchy, desolation and ruin." And in this ringing utterance 
they voice at once the deep conviction and profound humiliation 
of our best citizenship. We have a good people in our state, lov- 
ing justice, hating wrong and despising unfairness. The}^ are ready 
to uphold the majesty of the law when demands are made upon 
them. 

Second. — The right education of the negro is at once a duty 
and a necessity. All the resources of the school should be exhausted 
in elevating his character, improving his condition and increasing 
his capacity as a citizen. The policy of an enforced ignorance is 
illogical, un-American and un-Christian. It is possible in a des- 
potism, but perilous in a republic. It is indefensible on any grounds 
of social or political wisdom, and is not supported by any standards- 
of ethics or justice. If one fact is more clearly demonstrated by 
the logic of history than another, it is that education is an indis- 
pensable condition of wealth and prosperity. This is a universal 
law, without exemption or exception. Ignorance is a cure for 
nothing. 

"It is strange, indeed," says Mr. Murphy, "if education — a 
policy of God long before it was a policy of man, a policy of the 
universe long before it was a policy of society — were to find its first 
defeat at the negro's hands."* 

Of course, educational methods may be unwise and inade- 
quate, and educational auspices may be unfortunate and unwhole- 
some. In such event the proper course is not to close the school, 
but to change the methods — not to stop the teaching, but to im- 
prove the teachers. "The repression of it will result, not in its 

^Problems of the Present South, by Edgar Gardner Murphy; The 
Macmillan Co., New York; p. 59 fol. 



32 The Conference for Education. 

extinction, but in its perversion." That results have been disap- 
pointing, there is no room to doubt. Even the most sanguine 
and sentimental must admit that a good deal of prophecy has not 
been fulfilled. Yet progress has been made, and we have much to 
inspire hope and encourage effort. 

Several years ago when standing before a great audience in 
Tremont Temple, Boston, it gave me pardonable and patriotic 
pride to utter these words: "I come from a state where Hberal 
and equal provision is made for the education of our colored children 
in the common schools. And there is practically no sentiment in 
favor of withholding from them the best possible scholastic ad- 
vantages. Whatever doubts some may entertain, all are united 
and fixed in the purpose to test the virtue and potential force of. 
education in solving the gravest question that has ever been pre- 
sented to the people. It is written in the organic law of the state, 
and has become the settled policy of our people." 

I deeply regret, Mr. President, that it is impossible for me to 
repeat so emphatically those words this evening. Some of our 
good people— not a majority, I am glad to say — have become so 
disappointed over educational results that they have almost reached 
the point of despair. Impatient in their desire to see larger returns 
from well-meant efforts and liberal appropriations, they have raised 
the question as to the wisdom of a radical change of policy. I am 
sure, however, that the facts do not justify their honest fears. 

But what would be the effect of a policy of suppression ? Sup- 
pose we close the thirty thousand negro schools of the South, what 
would be the result? Let Dr. Curry tell us: "Ignorance more 
dense, pauperism more general and severe, crime, superstition and 
immorality rampant." We would not survive such a policy. 
The boasted strength of our governmental institutions could not 
endure the strain. We cannot have a democracy for one class of 
our population, and a despotism for the other. We cannot elevate 
and subjugate at the same time. And, above everything, let us 
be just. I am jealous for my people, that they be not amenable 
to the charge of injustice. We must keep our covenants. The 
utterance of a distinguished political leader of my state I make my 
own: 

"There is nothing so unprofitable as injustice. There is noth- 
ing that will react with such deadly effect upon the character of 



Charles B. Galloway. 33 

any people as the practice of wrong and oppression upon the weak 
and helpless. The denial of opportunities for education to the 
negro can be justified upon no good grounds. It ignores the teach- 
ings of Jesus. It is contrary to the genius and spirit of Christianity. 
It proposes a solution of the problem which is at variance with the, 
fundamentals of our religion. Nothing could ever justify it, even 
to our consciences." 

And that view is held by the greatest leaders of the South. 
No man who ever represented my native State of Mississippi in the 
highest councils of the nation more correctly interpreted her truest 
thought on all great issues than did L. 0. C. Lamar. And no man 
among us ever had a more enthusiastic following. His great de- 
liverances became the accepted doctrines of his people. A profound 
political philosopher who never contented himself with a surface 
view of any subject, and who had unconcealed contempt for mere 
partizan harangue, he gave to every question which concerned the 
welfare of the state and nation the sincerest and most patriotic 
consideration. 

When a measure was pending in the Senate proposing national 
aid to education, Mississippi's distinguished Senator gave expres- 
sion to matured views that commanded the applause of the entire 
state. A few sentences from that great speech may be reproduced 
with profit. Northern Senators had intimated lack of confidence 
in the state's educational authorities to distribute the fund equita- 
bly, and suggested amendments to the bill. Senator Lamar said: 
" I say with entire confidence that this distrust is not deserved; 
that Senators are mistaken as to the state of feeling in the South with 
reference to the education of the negro. The people of the South 
find that the most precious interests of their society and civilization 
are bound up in the question of his education — of his elevation out 
of his present state of barbarism. I shall enter into no argument 
upon that subject. I intend-ed to read some authorities on it, but my 
friend from South Carolina (Mr. Hampton) has anticipated me." 

After quoting from Dr. Mayo, Professor Smart and other 
Northern educators, who had been South and had applauded the 
heroic efforts of the Southern people to educate both races alike, 
Senator Lamar further said: 

"The problem of race, in a large part, is a problem of illiteracy. 
Most of the evils, most of the difficulties, which have grown up out 



34 The Conference for Education. 

of that problem have arisen from a condition of ignorance, preju- 
dice and superstition. Remove these, and the simpler elements of 
the question will come into play with a more enHghtened under- 
standing and a more tolerant disposition. I will go with those who 
will go furthest in the matter. 

In educational statesmanship, no voice has been more poten- 
tial in America during the past quarter of a century than that 
peerless Southern leader, the late Dr. J. L. M. Curry. The echoes 
of his marvellously musical voice will continue to thrill the hearts 
of American patriotism like the inspiring notes of a bugle. Alas! 
that he is not a conspicuous figure in this convention to-night. 
In a masterly address before the constitutional convention of 
Louisiana, a few years ago, he spoke these grandly eloquent words: 

"The negroes, unlike alien immigrants, are here not of their 
own choosing, and their civil and political equality is the outcome 
of our subjugation. Neither their presence nor their civil equaUty 
is likely to be changed in our day. The negroes will remain a con- 
stituent portion of the Southern population and citizenship. What 
are to be our relations to them? Are they to be lifted up, or left 
in the condition of discontent, ignorance, poverty, crime, barbar- 
ism? Shall one race have every encouragement and opportunity 
for development for higher civiUzation, and the other be handi- 
capped and environed with insurmountable obstacles to progress? 
Are friction, strife, hatred, less likely with the negro under stereo- 
typed conditions of inferiority than by the recognition and stimula- 
tion of whatever capacities for progress he may possess? Shall 
we learn nothing from history? Do Ireland and Poland furnish 
us no lessons?" 

Wise words and wisely spoken. By these principles, so elo- 
quently enunciated by our great leaders, the country will unfalter- 
ingly stand. Whatever the discouragements and seeming failures, 
the policy inspired by Christianity and vindicated by history will 
not be reversed. And in all the coming years that which will be 
spoken of most to the honor of the South was that, out of the wreck 
and ruin of war, with little left but the charred and scarred remains 
of fire and tempest, she gave with an almost lavish hand to the 
education of the negroes. Every line on that page of her brilHant 
history will be glorious with the unstinted praise of the civiHzed 
world. 



Charles B. Galloivay. 35 

From the declaration that education has made the negro more 
immoral and criminal, I am constrained to dissent. There are no 
data or figures on which to base such an indictment or justify such 
an assertion. On the contrary, indisputable facts attest the state- 
ment that education and its attendant influences have elevated 
the standard and tone of morals among the negroes of the South. 
The horrid crimes, which furnish an apology for the too frequent 
expressions of mob violence in these parallels, are committed, 
almost without exception, by the most ignorant and brutal of the 
race. I have been at not a little pains to ascertain from representa- 
tives of various institutions the post-collegiate history of their 
students, and I am profoundly gratified at the record. I believe 
it perfectly safe to say that not a single case of criminal assault 
has ever been charged on a student of a mission school for negroes 
founded and sustained by a great Christian denomination. 

"To school the negro," says a certain editor, " is to increase 
his criminality. Official statistics do not lie, and they tell us that 
the negroes who can read and write are more criminal than the 
illiterate. The more money for negro education, the more crime. 
This is the unmistakable showing of the United States Census." 

Now, I do not hesitate to affirm that the United States Census 
shows unmistakably exacth' the opposite — that education has 
decreased crime. A careful study of the exact figures will show 
that the proportion of negro criminals from the illiterate class has 
been 40 per cent, larger than from the class which has had school 
training. And when we consider further that it is naturally and 
notoriously easier to convict a poor negro of any crime than a white 
man who has influential friends and well-paid counsel, the strength 
of the statement is irresistible and unanswerable. 

Joel Chandler Harris, the distinguished author and political 
philosopher, whose interpretation of the Southern negro has given 
him world-wide and immortal fame, in a recent article in the; 
Saturday Evening Post, gives this emphatic testimon}*: 

"The idle and criminal classes among them make a great show 
in the police court records, but right here in Atlanta the reputable 
and decent negroes far outnumber those who are on the lists of the 
police as new or old offenders. I am bound to conclude, from what 
I see about me and from what I know of the race elsewhere, that 
the negro, notwithstanding the late start he has made in civilization 



36 The Conference for Education. 

and enlightenment, is capable of making himself a useful member 
of the community in which he lives and moves, and that he is be- 
coming more and more desirous of conforming to all the laws that 
have been enacted for the protection of society." 

The Hon. W. M. Cox, of Mississippi, prominent in the political 
councils of his state, for years a leading figure in our state legisla- 
ture, and a scholar, has given his judgment on this question, which 
perfectly accords with my own observations. He says : 

"When I consider all the circumstances of the case, the negro's 
'weakness, his utter lack of preparation for freedom and citizenship, 
and the multitudinous temptations to disorder and wrongdoing 
which have assailed him, the wonder to me is, not that he has done 
so ill, but that he has done so well. No other race in the world 
would have borne itself with so much patience, docility and sub- 
missiveness. It is true that many grave crimes have been commit- 
ted by negroes, and these have sorely taxed the patience of the white 
people of the South. I do not bUnk at their enormity, and I know 
that they must be sternly repressed and terribly avenged. But I 
insist that the entire race is not chargeable with these exceptional 
crimes, and that the overwhelming majority of the race are peacea- 
ble, inoffensive and submissive to whatever the superior race sees 
fit to put upon them. Their crimes are not the fruit of the little 
learning their schools afford them. They are the results of brutish 
instincts and propensities which they have not been taught to 
regulate and restrain." 

And in this scheme for their education a constructive states- 
manship suggests that proper training be provided for those who 
may become the teachers and wise leaders of their people. 

The true theory of negro education in the South has been 
admirably stated in these words: "The rudiments of an education 
for all, indtistrial training for the many, and a college course for the 
talented few." The thirty thousand negro pubHc schools of the 
South, on which $7,500,000 are expended annually, and for which 
we have spent $125,000,000 since 1870, must be supplied with com- 
petent teachers of that race. 

To every man among them with the evident qualities of leader- 
ship, we should lend our Christian sympathy and a helping hand. 
President Tucker, of Dartmouth College, was entirely correct when 
he said: "I believe with a growing conviction that the salvation of 



Charles B. Galloivay. 37 

the negro in this country lies with the exceptional men of that 
race." And those, who have studied the philosophy of Christian 
missions and the progress of civilization, will tell you that the same 
is true of all the peoples of the earth. We train and Christianize 
the exceptional men who are to be the real redeemers of their race, 
whether in China, Japan, India or Africa. 

Professor Max Muller gives authoritative and conclusive testi- 
mony on this momentous matter: "The intellectual and moral 
character of a nation is formed in schools and universities, and 
those who educate a people have always been its real masters, 
though they may go by a more modest name." 

When Professor Tholuck reached the fiftieth anniversary of 
his great career as teacher of theology at Halle, he received hearty 
and grateful congratulations from pupils and friends in all parts of 
the German Empire. The Emperor sent him the decoration of the 
Order of the Black Eagle. Students, with torches, marched in 
procession past his windows, singing one of Luther's immortal 
hymns. What a significant and appropriate tribute to one of the 
mightiest forces in the empire! The man who was fitting teachers 
and preachers to mould the moral and religious thought of the 
nation, might well receive recognition and honor from the throne 
itself. For without the security given the empire in the ethical 
and religious instruction of the church and school, the throne itself 
would become unsteady, and the crown would rest uneasy on the 
Emperor's anxious head. And if for an empire, how much more 
important for a republic in which every citizen is a sovereign and 
peer of the realm. 

Other phases of this problem of the nation I have not time 
to consider. Already I have trespassed too long upon your pa- 
tience. 

My message is to the younger people of the South. Into their 
strong hands the country is soon to be committed. The facts of 
history eloquently confirm the wise observation of Goethe, that 
the destiny of a nation at any given time depends upon the opin- 
ions of its young men who are under twenty-five years of age." 
Upon them must devolve the solution of this problem. It requires 
great wisdom and long patience. But God rules, and right the day 
must win. 

Young men of my country, in everything dare to do right. 



38 The Conference for EducaHon. 

Have faith in God and the future. Stand by the underlying prin- 
ciples of our great republic, and the coming years will vindicate 
your manly independence and uncorrupted patriotism. Kepler, 
the great astronomer, who won for himself the title of "legislator 
of the skies," rejoiced more in truth than in titles, in honor than in 
honors. When his work, "The Harmonies of the World," was first 
published, he said: "I can afford to wait a century for a reader, 
since God Himself waited six thousand years for an observer." 
And so every man who is dominated by honest convictions and is 
inspired by a righteous ambition to promote the best interests of 
his country can well afford to abide the certain and triumphant 
vindication of the future. 

After some brief announcements the Conference adjourned to 
meet the following day at 10 a. m. 



SECOND DAY, APRIL 27, 1904. 



MORNING SESSION. 

^ The Conference was called to order by the president at 10:30 
a. m. in the Jefferson Theatre. Under the head of "Reports From 
the Field," the first address was delivered by the Hon. H. L. 
Whitfield, Superintendent of Education for the State of Mississippi. 
Said Mr. Whitfield: 

H. L. WHITFIELD. 

In my opinion what the South most needs is fully to realize 
that what is best in her material life can be reached only as a result 
of the proper training of her people ; that her material development 
cannot possibly be in advance of the development of her people; 
that she mu5t formulate a definite and comprehensive policy and 
with patience work out in an orderly way her own salvation. In 
other words, the paramount issue of the South is the proper educa- 
tion of the children of the South. Our people must be made to see 
that this is the first, the logical, the necessary step to take. We 
cannot hope for our best development until all the formulators of 
opinion be made to know that no development in the South can be 
any better than are the schools of the South. Whenever we can 
get the thinking South, without regard to calling, fully to compre- 
hend this truth, in my opinion her problems will have been largely 
solved. We not only need larger school budgets, but we need all 
our people to realize what it means to educate, and that the educa- 
tion of the children should not be wholly relegated to school-teach- 
ers, but that every individual with an interest in his state and 
country should contribute at least a part of his best thought to this 



40 The Conference for Education. 

question to the end that the best methods may be employed and 
the best results obtained. 

I long to see the time when the press will discuss all the ques- 
tions appertaining to public education with the same intelligence 
that it does good roads, diversified industries, better methods of 
agriculture and politics. Whenever we give the proper considera- 
tion to causes, effects will take care of themselves. 

I am glad to report that public sentiment in Mississippi is fast 
crystallizing along this line ; her people are fast coming to the con- 
clusion that she cannot expect anything better in her life than she 
makes her schools, the highest evidence of which is the progress, at 
great sacrifice, she has made within the last two years. 

Before entering upon the discussion of the question of local 
taxation in Mississippi, I will discuss briefly what should be the unit 
of local taxation in the South. My own experience in the work 
has resulted in changing my convictions on this subject. I orig- 
inally thought that a large part of the revenues for the support of 
the schools should be raised in the school districts, but after care- 
fully going over the field I am now satisfied that it will be years 
before this principle of district taxation can be practically applied 
in the rural districts of the South. Population is so sparse and 
property values so small that it is practically impossible for a large 
majority of the rural districts in the South to sustain their own 
schools ; and if our laws permitted rural districts to cut themselves 
off from the remainder of the county and levy taxes for their own 
support, the result would be that the stronger communities would 
levy such a tax and the more numerous poorer districts would not 
be able to raise sufficient revenues by local taxation to give any 
material extension to their terms. 

The county in the South is the political unit, and the people 
are accustomed to transact their local business through county 
agencies. I believe that in the main, the practical benefits which 
are obtained by district taxation in the East and West will result 
from county taxation in the South. It is necessary here to avail 
ourselves of every source of revenue, and the stronger must help 
the weaker, and if districts are permitted to tax themselves for 
their own schools it should be after they have borne their pro rata 
of the taxation for the whole county. Under a count}^ system of 
taxation, schools will be more uniform as to length of term and 



H. L. Whitfieldo 41 

grading; consequently can be better supervised than they would 
be under a district system where each district would have a dif- 
ferent length of term. Again, to obtain local taxation in a county 
it is necessary that the entire county be agitated and the same 
result in the way of the general education of the people is obtained 
as is obtained from the levying of the district tax. 

The constitution of Mississippi makes it mandatory on the 
legislature to appropriate a sufficient sum of money from the state 
treasury to maintain the schools of the state for not less than four 
months in each year. It permits counties and separate school 
districts to extend the school term provided by the state. 

About three years ago I organized a comprehensive campaign 
for better schools, the main idea being to discuss before the people 
the underlying principles of common schools that they might have 
a higher appreciation of public schools, and that they might sustain 
them more liberally. I will briefly outline the plan I have followed 
in this work. I do not know that there is anything in the methods 
employed to distinguish it from like work that has been done in all 
the states of the South. However, some of my brethren in the 
work may derive some suggestions as to the details of my plan that 
may be of some practical value to them. While general education 
of the people on the subject of public education was the general 
purpose of the campaign, to procure county taxation for schools 
was the direct end. 

I will now somewhat at detail give the general plan of cam- 
paign: At the beginning of the year I would select the counties 
that I intended to canvass during the year, and would make a visit 
to each of those counties on the occasion of the meeting of its spring 
court. It is the custom in our state for a large part of the adult male 
population to be present on the first day of the county court. The 
judges, almost without exception, have treated me with the greatest 
consideration, usually permitting me to address the people at the 
time that the largest number were present and when they would 
give the best attention. After discussing fully the questions at 
issue, I would give notice that I would spend some time in the 
county during the summer for the purpose of agitating public 
sentiment in favor of a local school levy. At the close of my 
speech I always put the question to a vote in order to get as 
many committed to the proposition as possible. These expres 



42 The Conference for Educatton. 

sions have always been practically unanimous in favor of making 
the levy. 

Those present, representing every part and faction of the 
county, would usually immediately commence the agitation in 
their immediate neighborhoods. 

One of the principal benefits derived from this vote on the 
proposition is, that it is very striking evidence to that class of our 
fellow citizens who want to be always with the majority and to 
pose as leaders of the majority, that the sentiment of the county 
was largely in favor to the proposition. Speech-making alone does 
not do the work. Practical organization is necessary. While 
making these preliminary visits, I organize m}'' forces and try to 
place strong men at strategic points. I enlisted, as far as I could, 
the interest of the county superintendent, leading teachers, min- 
isters, newspaper men, and leading citizens. I would get a list of 
the voters of the county, and send to each of them an address and 
other printed matter that was sent out during the contest. The 
active work has to be done in the summer time, as the farmers have 
no time to attend meeting when the crops demand their attention. 
As much preliminary work is done as possible and the active cam- 
paign usually opens about the ist of July and closes the ist of 
September. 

After having made a preliminary survey of the districts to be 
worked, I then called together those that were to be associated with 
rae in the active campaign work. I went over carefully the situa- 
tion in each county with them, giving them all the data collected 
on my preliminary visit. All the arguments that had been made 
against the movement and the best ways to answer them were care- 
fully discussed. Each campaigner was directed to spend at least 
a month in making preliminary visits to the territory which was 
assigned him, which was usually about four counties, for the pur- 
pose of becoming thoroughly familiar with the situation and of 
enlisting all the forces possible in behalf of the work. A number 
of dates was made for each county, usually at some country church ; 
local men of influence were invited to address the people; some- 
times distinguished citizens from some of the colleges, or ministers 
who were helping generally in the work, would be present on these 
occasions. 

I have found that the only real difficulty in the work is to get 



H. L. Whitfield. 43 

before the people, for 1 have never known in all my personal experi- 
ence a case where those present at a meeting would not always 
vote practically unanimously for the tax. Where means can be pro- 
vided I think it best to employ some tactful person to do the work of 
advertising these meetings. In one county last year I had a bright 
young school man to make a series of appointments for me. He 
spent several days in the county, went to each place where an appoint- 
ment was made, secured the co-operation of the leading citizens of 
the community, had the people to give us a basket dinner; he then 
procured the names of all the heads of the families within a radius 
of several miles of the place and wrote personal letters and sent 
circular matter to all of them. As a result, we had large crowds at 
each place. The names of all present were usualty secured to a 
petition addressed to the county board, asking that the tax be 
levied. Some responsible person was appointed to see those of his 
neighborhood who were not present, and, if possible, to secure their 
signatures to the petition. These petitions were all sent to the 
county manager by a certain date and were filed by him with the 
board before their meeting for levying taxes. When the county 
board met to levy taxes, we always had as many influential people 
present as possible; this is a critical time in the work, and I have 
known one or two instances where we failed to get school levies 
because there were no active leaders present. 

My experience is, that the people are willing, when they thor- 
oughly understand the question, to levy the tax. The people of the 
South are again passing through a transition period, and in my 
opinion the civilization of the South for years to come will be deter- 
mined by this work that we are now doing. 

I will now give some of the results which I think are clearly 
traceable to this agitation for better schools. 

First. — At the beginning of this campaign only three counties 
and seventy-four separate school districts were levying local taxes; 
now thirty-six counties and ninety-two separate school districts 
are maintaining their schools in part by local taxation. 

Second. — The annual increase in the state appropriation has 
been $555,000. 

Third. — The average term of the rural schools, exclusive of the 
separate districts, has increased from 90 to over 123 days. 



44 ^^^^ Conference for EdttcaUon. 

Fourth. — A larger number of school-houses is now being built 
in the state than ever before in its history. 

Fifth. — The average monthly salaries of the teachers have been 
increased something over $4.00. 

Sixth. — It has given a new inspiration to the teachers. They 
are now organizing for the purpose of thoroughly overhauling our 
entire school system. The State Teachers' Association through a 
committee has just distributed over the state a thorough discus- 
sion of the rural school problem. Every phase of our rural school 
work is thoroughly discussed, and I consider this little brochure a 
credit to our teachers. The teachers are now organizing in every 
county, and the number attending the summer schools and institutes 
has been largely increased. 

Seventh. — More liberal school legislation. The legislature 
recently adjourned, passed a law increasing the salaries of the 
county superintendents 40 per cent., which I consider to be one of 
the most important steps ever taken by our legislature, the results 
of which are already visible in the better support they are giving 
me in my work. 

One great trouble we have always had in our work in getting 
the counties to levy taxes has been that there has always been a 
general legislative restriction as to the amount of taxes a county 
might levy. In the interior counties where there were no railroads 
and little other corporate property it usually took the maximum 
levy for the necessary county expenses, and, as a result, although 
the people might be unanimous in favor of the tax and the board 
were willing to make it, yet it was impossible to do so because of 
this legislative restriction on taxation. The legislature has re- 
moved this restriction as to taxes levied for schools. Now it 
will be possible for us to get the tax levied in any county in the 
State. 

A law also was passed raising the maximum monthly salaries 
of rural teachers from $55 to $65. 

County boards were given the power of making largely in- 
creased appropriations for school-houses. 

On the whole, I consider that the legislature has been generous 
to us, and I am satisfied that if we can but show results, it will be 
even more generous to us in the future. 



H. L. Whitfield. 45 

Our state is exerting herself in raising the funds necessary to 
sustain the schools, but our property is fast increasing in value, 
new industries are being developed, and I do not think it will be long 
before we will be able to adequately sustain them. 

Eighth. — The legislature just adjourned, in round numbers, 
appropriated for all purposes $5,200,000. Of this amount 
$3,755,267.12 was for public education, orsomething over 72 per cent, 
of the total appropriations was for education. The total taxable 
value of all the property in Mississippi is $251,477,450. We will 
use this year for our common schools alone, not counting the col- 
leges or institutions for unfortunates, about $2,700,000, which 
sum is considerable over i per cent, of the value of the entire taxa- 
ble property of the state. 

This is a heavy burden, but our people feel that it is the best 
investment that can be made, and that the returns received from 
it in material resources and better citizenship will be full compensa- 
tion for the sacrifices made in supporting the schools. 

Some parts of the state are doing all that possibly can be done. 
There are yet some counties and districts that we must canvass. 
The whole field must be covered in order that a reaction may not 
result. In fact, I realize that this is a most critical period in our 
educational work. Public sentiment has rapidly advanced. Taxes 
for schools are unusually high, but we will do all we can to show 
the people that the money appropriated is wisely expended. 

In my opinion, the greatest benefit that has resulted from this 
agitation, is the better school sentiment that now exists in the state. 
The people appreciate their schools as never before and are willing 
to better sustain them in every particular. 

I think the largely increased appropriations by the last two 
legislatures are due wholly to a popular demand. 

Perhaps the best expression of this better school sentiment is 
the better school attendance. 

At the conclusion of Superintendent Whitfield's address, the 
president read a telegram of greeting from the Hon. N. C. Blan- 
chard, Governor-elect of Louisiana. The following address under the 
head of " Reports from the Field " was then delivered by the Hon. 
S. A. Mynders, State Superintendent of Education for Tennessee: 



46 The Conference for Education. 

S. A. MYNDERS. 

Tennessee was the first state formed out of territory to be ad- 
mitted into the Union, and it is the only state that at the time of 
its admission into the Union found the title to its public lands 
vested in the general Government and not in the state or township. 
The liberal policy of the Federal Government in providing for public 
education in states formed out of territory was not adopted until 
six years after Tennessee became a state, and was not made to 
apply to Tennessee until two years thereafter. 

When the state did receive the benefit of the act it should have 
received four hundred and forty-four thousand, four hundred and 
forty-four acres, but in fact received only twenty -two thousand, 
less than one-twentieth of what it was entitled to. This does not 
include the grant for colleges and academies. North Carolina paid 
its Revolutionary soldiers in bounty lands, and these bounties were 
located in what is now Tennessee, so that in 1804, when we at- 
tempted to locate our lands it was found that they were already 
settled and that the settlers could not be dispossessed. Then the 
system of government surveys had not been extended to Tennessee, 
so that the land sections could not be easily determined. From 
this small beginning Tennessee has had to build up its public school 
system, and has received no other assistance. The proceeds from 
the sale of the public lands were carefully guarded by the early 
legislatures and added to from time to time by such funds as the 
state could spare. A committee of the legislature of 1839 reported 
the school fund of the state to be at that time one million five hun- 
dred thousand dollars. Several attempts were made in the early 
history of the state to establish a system of public schools, but 
perhaps the first successful attempt was made in 1867, when an act 
was passed to create and maintain a system of public schools. This 
act provided for a limited income from the state and local taxation 
■ by the several counties of the state. Much trouble was found in 
inducing the county courts to levy a special tax from the fact that 
the act provided for the education of the negro, and as all taxes 
were paid by the whites they did not readily take to the idea of 
dividing the same with those who had recently been their property. 
The advocates of a public school system, however, made a vigorous 
campaign in behalf of the recent enactment, and nothing did more 



5. A. Myndcrs. 47 

to popularize the same than the excellent report of Colonel Kille- 
brew, the assistant superintendent of public instruction, made in 
March, 1872, from which the following quotation is made: 

"I regret to have to report that there is yet in some localities 
strong feeling against levying a school tax, because the negroes will 
be made partakers of its benefits. It is not well for a community 
or an individual to suffer prejudice to drive them in opposition to 
their best interest and highest duties. The problem presented is 
one of the gravest nature, and should command our most serious 
and careful consideration. By a decree of Providence, the negro 
is here with us, subject to the same law, and entitled to the same 
privileges by law. That he can be made a useful laborer and a 
quiet, peaceable citizen, no one who is acquainted with his char- 
acter can doubt. His attachment to the place of his birth is mar- 
velous, and the most powerful influence brought to bear upon him 
by corrupt and designing politicians was not able, with but few 
exceptions, to destroy the confidence he had in the honesty and 
uprightness of his former owner. If his labor can be improved; 
if it can be made more profitable to himself, his employer and the 
state, the highest considerations of duty, charity, benevolence and 
patriotism demand that it be done. Intelligence multiplies results 
even in the brute. A horse, for instance, trained to walk straight 
forward to stakes in laying off rows for the planting of corn can do 
a third more work in a day, and do it better, than one not so trained 
or educated. A team that has been disciplined can draw a far heavier 
load than one untrained. Every farmer knows that the value 
of his laborer depends, other things being equal, upon the degree 
of his intelligence. Up to a certain point there can be no question 
as to the advantages to the employer to be derived from the educa- 
tion of the laborer." 

This report showed at that time that only twenty-nine of the 
ninety-three counties had levied a special county tax for schools. 
The excellent work of Col. Killebrew, however, bore much fruit, 
and in 1873 the legislature passed the present school act and within 
two years from that time every county in the state had levied a 
special school tax. In some, however, it was very small. Since 
that time, the public school system has had a gradual growth. 

The last year has been one of great improvement in public 
school sentiment. The state legislature increased the revenue for 



48 The Conference for Education. 

public education by distributing to the several counties the surplus 
in the state treasury at the end of the year. On the 31st of Decem- 
ber, 1903, the amount of this was $271,600, and we have good reason 
to believe that it will be very largely increased next December. 
Through the generosity of the Southern Education Board we were 
able last year to carry on a campaign among the people and county 
courts of the state, and as a result I am pleased to report that for 
the year 1904 only one county decreased its public school tax, 
while fully one-third of them made substantial increase. A num- 
ber of counties will this year be able to run their schools nine months, 
and I think the average term will be at least six months. 

The Hon. 0. B. Martin, state superintendent of education 
of South Carolina, then spoke as follows: 

O. B. MARTIN. 

I am asked to give a brief report of educational conditions, 
progress and prospects in the state of the palmetto, the pine, the 
rice-field, the "Dispensary and the Pitch-fork." Perhaps it is well 
to refresh your minds in regard to the geography, the topography 
and the anthropography of that part of the moral vineyard now 
under consideration. You will remember that about half of the 
area of this state extends from the sea-coast, to a dividing line 
which we call the sand-hills. In this fertile, alluvial country, which 
ranges from the sea-level to an altitude of 300 feet, will be found a 
profusion of alligators, pickaninnies, rice-fields, sugar-cane, tobacco, 
cotton, and pine and cypress forests. Here, too, are found our 
phosphate deposits, and here we are beginning our great trucking 
— strawberry and melon^industries. This is the country of the 
wealthy South Carolina antebellum gentleman, and these vast 
acres make up his plantation. Here maybe seen the dilapidated 
mansion ; and the fact that in some sections there are thirty negroes 
to one white person shows that the descendants of his numerous 
slaves are congested in the same locality. The impulsive and im- 
petuous character shows that thousands of French people settled 
here in colonial days. It is one of our great problems to make 
fifty farms out of the great plantation and then provide proper 
school conditions and social necessities for a changed and reformed 
civilization. This part of our state has enormous possibilities. 



0. B. Martin. 49 

We have less foreign population than any other state, except one; 
and only four states have as much negro population as South Caro- 
lina. An incoming wave of immigration has begun in this section 
of the state; we have a high tide of zeal and energy in industrial 
lines and it well behooves us to take school prospects "at the flood 
and lead on to fortune." 

The northern half of South Carolina is and has been the home 
of the Scotch-Irish, the English and the German. This is the land 
of small farms and a large predominance of white people. Here 
is an undulating, rolling country which reaches to an elevation of 
3000 feet, where nestles the home of the sturdy mountaineer. 
Here may be found our cotton, corn and wheat fields; and here is 
where our "waterfalls, wearied with the solos of centuries, have 
joined in musical duets with the shuttle and the loom." In this 
section you may travel more than a hundred miles and not be out 
of sight of a prosperous mill village for more than five minutes at a 
time. It is here that school administrators must face the difficult 
problems of the mill towns and the not less difficult ones of the 
depleted country from which the operatives have gone. Ambition 
grows wildly and luxuriantly in mountamous environment; and 
there are enough ambitious, aspiring children beneath the frowning 
cliffs of the Blue Ridge to guide the destinies and direct the energies 
of the greatest nation under heaven. What greater privilege on 
earth than to provide wholesome and adequate training for such 
children ! 

Before going into a report of last year's work, I want to remind 
you that our public school system is less than forty years old. A 
man rented some land from a wealthy gentleman in my town a 
few years ago and they were walking over it in October, when it 
ought to have been grown and in full fruitage. "Why," said the 
landowner, "the cotton is very small." "Yes," said the renter, 
" but you must remember that it is not a year old yet." Our 
school system, as a system, did not exist prior to 1868. My report 
this year to the General Assembly was the Thirt3-fifth Annual 
Report of the Superintendent of Education. Fifty years ago, we 
had private schools galore, and a plan to aid poor children in these 
schools; but there was no public school system. We now have but 
half a system. Our white schools, on an average, ran 112 days 
last year and the colored schools 74 days. It is a crisis in our work 



5© Tlic Conference for Education. 

until we have a session of twice that length, and until a child can 
receive a first-class education at any of the public schools. We 
spent last year .11,046,143.49 upon the education of 288,713 chil- 
dren. We spent about a quarter of a million dollars in college educa- 
tion. We levied local taxes in more than 75 districts, making a 
total of nearly 400 out of 1636 districts in the state. I may add 
in this connection that, by special act of the legislature, twenty 
districts voted to issue bonds, and several excellent public school 
buildings have been built and are now being built, ranging in cost 
from S8000 to $42,000. Nearly $200,000 was raised in this way 
In many counties there has been consolidation of districts, but our 
work along this line has been directed chiefly to the consolidation 
of schools within the district; because, according to our law, a dis- 
trict may contain as much as forty-nine square miles. We have 
had sixty-five consolidations of schools, doing away with nearly 
200 schools; and we have built 124 new school-houses this year. 

Our last legislature established 124 scholarships, especially for 
farmer boys at Clemson College, our great industrial institution for 
men; and they increased the 124 scholarships at Winthrop, our 
great normal and industrial college for women, from $44 to $100 
each. They established 82 normal scholarships, worth $40 each 
in the historic South Carolina College, making a total increase in 
the appropriations for scholarships of $22,624. They also increased 
our appropriation for summer schools. More than 2500 teachers 
attended summer schools last year. About 2400 attended our 
state and county schools, and more than 200 went to Knoxville, 
Chicago, Hampton, Tuskegee and elsewhere. This same legis- 
lature enacted a rural library law, and while the appropriation has 
been available about a month, more than 250 schools have already 
applied for its benefits, many of them raising more than the amount 
required. We confidently expect to establish 500 libraries in the 
country districts by the close of the year, and to expend $20,000 
in so doing; and to cap the climax the legislature put a capitation 
tax on canines. Every owner of a dog — whether it be cur, collie, 
fice or hound — shall pay an annual tax of fifty cents on each one, 
and the proceeds of this tax shall be devoted to the school fund. 
Do you wonder, therefore, that one of our leading educators wrote 
to the daily papers after the adjournment and remarked that we 
had " an educational legislature as well as an educational governor " ? 



O. B. Martin. 51 

It is but simple justice to say that much of our educational 
hope and enthusiasm has been inspired by this Conference and the 
boards which work in harmony with it. Our Conferences of 
County Superintendents and leading educators have been followed 
by an active campaign which has consisted of rallies in all parts 
of the state, in which all manner of public men have participated, 
conferences at various pivotal points, a careful study of our con- 
ditions by teachers who have traveled over typical counties and 
made helpful suggestions and formed working organizations, and 
a generous distribution of pamphlets, booklets and brochures to 
the uttermost parts of the state. 

What we have done is but an earnest of what we will do. In 
connection with the work which was done last year, and as an index 
to the great work which lies before us, I want to quote from the 
reports of our young ladies who were appointed under the auspices 
of the Southern Education Board, and who visited several counties 

in our state. One says: "At , a typical rural school 

was found away out in the backwoods, at least one-half a mile 
from any dwelling — no good playground, water inconvenient, 
lighting poor, seats uncomfortable; in fact, the surroundings were 
very discouraging. Here I longed for some books, some papers 
some ideas, to give these bright boys and girls, whose minds are 
being dwarfed by coming in contact with no such influences." 

Again: "These schools are often held in what serves for a 
church also. The remote situation and accompanying graveyard 
must have anything but a cheerful influence. Once when I was 
observing the utter desolation of such a place, I asked a passing 
youth why all the doors and windows were left open. 'Yes'm,' 
he replied, 'they ain't nothin' in there to git hurt.' And when I 
went in, I realized what he meant; there was literally nothing in 
the way of equipment except one table and a few benches fastened at 
one end to the wall. . . . Here I was ashamed that I could not 
say all that I wished, for the interest was pathetic in its eagerness. 
An association was organized that pledged itself to relieve the bare 
grounds with native vines and trees; besides this, the trustees 
promised to finish the building, put in glass windows and aid the 
association in securing a small librar3^" 

Another: "In the morning I went to . Here I expected 

a goodly number, as the trustee had answered my letter 



52 11 ic Conference for Edtication. 

and said the meeting had been well advertised and that he was 
doing all in his power to make it a success. I saw him on Tuesday 
before this meeting, and he felt assured we would have a fine crowd. 
The school-house, he said, had recently been painted inside and out 
and was 'a little gem'; but oh! horrors! the 'little gem,' to my 
utter astonishment, was painted a bright red and trimmed in a 
bright blue; the floor was painted black, and the ceiling a dirty 
white. The desks were home-made ones and painted the same 
color as the school-house. Truly, there was nothing here to admire 
unless it be that patriotism prompted the red, white and blue 
scheme." 

Still another: "At , Mr. said that he was tired of 

poor schools and that he was also tired of sending his children 
away to town, and that he wanted a better school at home; he 
gave $ioo, and $200 more was raised on the spot. As a result, 
they will have two teachers and a nine months school this 3^ear." 

The reports of these visitors, together with reports of rallies, 
consolidations, local tax agitations and library literature were put 
into the hands of every public-school trustee in South Carolina. 
You have heard of the old negro who was frightened by a boy 
with a white sheet over him in a graveyard. He ran a mile and 
slowed up. Another boy similarly attired suddenly stepped out 
from behind a tree and said, 'Didn't we run, though?' The old 
negro said: 'Yes, bless God, but you ain't seed no runnin' yit!' 
I hope that within the next year you may see some forward 
running in educational work in South Carolina. The history of 
South Carolina in the' early 30's and also in the 6o's will indicate 
that she has aspired to a leadership among Southern states in the 
past; she led her sisters into secession, and thus out of industrial 
bondage and feudal conditions, and she is anxious to lead in 
educational prosperity. 

Our people are alive, alert and progressive; very few of them 
are like the "papoose who, strapped to the back of a squaw, 
never sees the world until it is past"; we are proud of our history 
and of the achievements of our fathers, but our faces are turned to 
the future and we are working for the welfare of our children. 
Come in April of 1905 and meet within our borders, in our beautiful 
capital city, the prettiest place in the world during the last week 
in April, and let the Palmetto State show her leadership in hos- 



Isaac W. Hill. 53 

pitality, in fraternal greeting, in educational development, in all 
that pertains to the glory of the New South and of a united nation. 
We have been visiting the Conference for Education in the South 
in our neighboring states for several years, and we want you to be 
like the Irishman when the doctor presented him a bill for $27. 
Pat remonstrated and asked for an itemized bill. The physician 
made it: $2 for medicine; $25 for visits. "Faith," says Pat, 
"I'll pay for the medicine, but I'll return the visits." I have been 
giving you the medicine for fifteen minutes, and I hope you will 
return the visit next year. And may the spirit of our conferring 
become the spirit of our whole people; may your people be my 
people, my people your people, and may naught but death come 
between us. 

The Hon. I. W. Hill, State Superintendent of Education of 
Alabama, then spoke on "Recent and Pending Educational Prog- 
ress" in that state. 

ISAAC W. HILL. 

In the fifteen minutes granted to me on this occasion I can do 
no more than give a mere statement of facts. 

Prior to 1901 the appropriation for public-school purposes 
guaranteed by the constitution was $100,000. This amount, how- 
ever, was increased by legislative enactment, until in 1904 it reached 
$550,000. This, with the interest of the sixteenth section funds 
and other land funds, and the one-mill school tax, gives us a total 
of about $1,100,000 as the available school fund for the scholastic 
year ending September 30, 1904. 

For the year beginning October i, 1904, and ending September 
30, 1905, the fund guaranteed by the new constitution will approx- 
imate $852,000. To this will be added the poll tax, the sixteenth 
section interest funds and interest on other school funds, giving a 
total of $1,150,000 available for school purposes. It will be noticed 
that there will be no great increase in the available funds. The 
great advantage, however, of the present plan over the old plan is 
that the school fund is guaranteed by constitutional enactment 
and is not subject to the whims, prejudices or passions of ever}' 
legislature. Under our present Constitution thirty cents on each 
hundred dollars of taxable property in this state is set aside for 



54 The Conference for EducaUon. 

school purposes. Under the old constitution the guaranteed fund 
was $100,000. Under the new constitution the guaranteed fund, 
with the present taxable values, will approximate $852,000. In 
addition to this the present constitution provides that "it shall be 
the duty of the legislature to increase the public funds from time 
to time as the necessity therefor and the condition of the treasury 
and the resources of the state may justify." Our present school 
fund is permanent. No legislature can decrease it, and yet a 
patriotic legislature, if the state's finances justify, may increase 
it. Do you not think that the sentiment that forced the constitu- 
tional convention to give to the public schools as a permanent 
school fund almost one-half of its revenues derived from direct taxa- 
tion shows that the public-school spirit is abroad in the land ? 

The state of Alabama as a state is at present doing all she can 
consistently do in the way of appropriations for public schools. 
Despite all this, in many sections the schools often languish for 
support. Teachers are poorly paid, although all the state appropria- 
tion, less four per cent for supervision, goes to them; our school 
buildings are poorly constructed and kept, and supervision is too 
frequently indifferent. This is not true, however, everywhere in 
the state. Some of our county superintendents are well qualified, 
enthusiastic and progressive. In some counties the teachers are 
well paid, school-houses are well built and the entire teaching force 
is imbued with that enthusiasm which comes as a natural result of 
love for the work. 

An important law, fixing the minimum limit of the public- 
school term, was passed by the Legislature in 1901. Before that 
time a public-school contract could be made for three months. 
The legislature referred to extended the minimum limit of the term 
to five months. At present some of the counties in the state have 
not a school with a contract for less than six months, and the aver- 
age in the State is more than five months. Alabama's three months 
school is a thing of the past. 

For the first time in the history of Alabama the principle of 
local taxation is recognized in the constitution. Under this con- 
stitution counties may, by a three-fifths vote of the people, levy a 
tax of ten cents on the hundred dollars. The machinery for levying 
this tax has been provided and the question is now being agitated 
in manv counties. The sentiment in favor of local taxation is 



Isaac W. Hill. . 55 

growing in the state every day and the demand for a constitutional 
amendment allowing local taxation by districts is becoming strongly 
noticeable. Local taxation by counties will prove very advanta- 
geous, but provision should also be made for taxation by districts. 
The funds secured by county taxation would enable the county 
boards of education to make valuable improvements in the rural 
schools not possible at this time. 

Another enactment of the legislature of 1903 which shows a 
growing sentiment in favor of public education and of public schools 
was the passing of a law classing school-houses as public buildings 
and authorizing commissioners courts, and boards of revenue to 
sell bonds under certain limitations for their construction. 

It should be said that what has been stated in regard to 
rural schools does not apply in all instances to the schools in the 
larger towns and cities. Under the new constitution a number of 
towns in the state are given the right to levy a local tax for school 
purposes. Several of them have already levied the tax, among 
which are Gadsden, Cullman and New Decatur. Many of the cities 
and towns appropriate funds from their general revenues for the 
support of the schools and many of them have built school-houses 
which would be a pride to any system. 

Alabama has made excellent provision for a supply of well- 
qualified teachers. Four normal schools for white teachers, three 
for colored teachers, nine district agricultural schools, a Girls' 
Industrial School at Montevallo, the University of Alabama and 
the Polytechnic Institute, all supported by the state, and at which 
tuition is free, are Alabama's contribution toward the demand for 
well-qualified teachers. In addition, there are in the state many 
denominational and private schools and colleges which do excellent 
work and send out into the state well-prepared instructors. The 
State has generously made an annual appropriation of five thou- 
sand dollars, which fund has been supplemented by the trustees 
of the State University, for conducting at that institution a six 
weeks summer school for teachers. The first session will be held 
the coming summer. The very best available talent has been 
secured and a great good is anticipated. Despite all this there is 
a lack of well-qualified teachers. 

It seems that this condition will continue until provisions have 
been made to pay teachers better salaries. In Alabama, as else- 



56 The Conference for Education. 

where, teachers are paid a lower wage than any other class of brain 
workers. Our people still pay to officers to convict and punish 
boys more than they do to employ teachers to train them in such 
manner as to prevent them from going wrong. Our court-houses 
and jails are still the best public buildings found in our rural coun- 
ties. The trend oi sentiment among our people for better qualified 
teachers, for better salaries, for better school-houses, and for better 
supervision is upward . In connection with this question of teachers 
I feel that I should state that Alabama has what is considered the 
best examination law in any of the states taking it as a whole. 

School organization in Alabama has always been defective. 
Under the constitution the public funds must be distributed by 
counties. Under legislative enactment the school fund must be 
apportioned to the several townships or districts within the county 
on a per capita basis. As a result there are in Alabama some town- 
ships that have sufficient funds to run their schools nine months in 
the year, while other townships in the same county have not enough 
funds to provide a good teacher for even four months of the year. 
It is hoped that under the workings of the redistricting law passed 
by the last legislature this condition will be in some degree rem- 
edied. Township lines will no longer be arbitrary school district 
boundaries. Ever}^ district will be established according to centers 
of population and natural barriers. By this law a county board of 
education is established with power to make rules and regulations 
governing the schools of the county. A uniform course of stud}^ 
can be prescribed and enforced. Salaries can be regulated and 
made to conform to the qualifications of the teachers and the char- 
acter of the work they have to perform. The county superin- 
tendent will be no longer a mere disbursing officer but as executive 
officer of the board of education he will have power to enforce its 
rulings, and in turn the board of education will have the power 
to require him to visit the schools and exercise the general duties 
of a supervisor. The legislature builded wiser than it knew when, 
after holding this bill during almost the entire session, finally just 
before adjournment it allowed its passage. 

Alabama, gentlemen, has her face turned toward the light. 
Within the next few years we hope to see established throughout 
the state a well-sustained, well-organized^ well-graded system of 
pubHc schools, offering to every child an opportunity to prepare 



James B. Aswcll. 57 

himself for useful living. With this end in view, the superintendent 
of education is urging upon the citizenship of every county he 
visits the necessity for local taxation to secure funds with which to 
maintain the schools, the importance of a well-qualified teaching 
force to develop the minds and characters of the children, and the 
need of expert supervision to direct and supervise educational 
affairs. The reception he has received ever^^where leads him to 
conclude that the people are becoming aroused on the subject of 
public education. 

The State Superintendent of Education of Louisiana, the Hon. 
James B. Aswell, then spoke as follows: 

JAMES B. ASWELL. 

Nothing of itself stands alone. The union of spirits produces 
the great things in life. The forces of this age are two divine spirits, 
born in heaven and expressed on earth : the one the spirit of democ- 
racy, equal privileges; the other, the spirit of universal education, 
equality of opportunity. They, united, make it impossible for any 
physical power to avail against the infinite power of such forces. 
They are nearest the Divine and will live, for mightier than 
inatter is mind, mightier than mind is spirit, mightier than spirit 
is God. 

The revelation to man of his power to create and enjo}- the 
blessings of democracy gave him the first glimpse of the immeasur- 
able wealth that lay within his grasp ; but the transformation in the 
school of poor fallen man, through the development of his God-like 
faculties into the likeness of his Maker, is the miracle of the ages. 

It is good to educate the few, but universal education is the 
necessity of any permanent civilization. Democracy and universal 
education are the vitalizing forces of nations. The one is living and 
helping others live; the other is knowing how to live. No nation 
lives without them, and nowhere do you find the one enduring 
without the other. They are interdependent and inseparable. 

These are the forces that give strength and courage to the 
Department of Education in Louisiana to undertake the task, how- 
ever difficult and serious, of removing from the fair name of the 
state every stain of illiteracy. There are abundant evidences that 
the difficulties in the way are not to be overcome without struggle 



58 The Conference for Education. 

or pain. We have a small school fund, a mixed population, and 
two distinct languages; a sparsely settled country with poor roads 
and insufficient means of transportation ; the Mississippi River with 
its annual floods and expensive levee system, and traces of an 
aristocratic sentiment against "free schools for the poor." We 
know that we cannot lay any especial claim to greatness because 
of past educational achievement, but, in spite of the hardships that 
we well foresee, there are unmistakable evidences that we are ap- 
proaching a period of notable activity in educational work. 

In this report I am not inclined to give a puny wail because 
of our trials and discouragements, but rather to speak of our plan 
of work before which we expect difficulties to disappear and through 
which we hope to bring new life and power to every child in the 
state, however poor or neglected. 

The Department of Education is not alone in this undertaking. 
The press of the state is making a gallant stand, ever ready to 
champion our cause. The people believe that we are now rich 
enough to have good schools for the children, and that we are too 
poor not to have them. We believe that we are old enough to go 
alone to meet any problem, but that we are young enough to re- 
ceive encouragement and inspiration from the experiences of other 
states. We believe that we are strong enough to fight our own 
battles, but that we are weak enough to need the co-operative 
power that comes from united efforts like this to promote the interest 
of a common cause. We are proud enough to demand the best, 
and yet humble enough to be spent in service. We are hopeful 
enough to stake our lives on the future, and yet cautious enough 
to handle, as no others can for us, the intricate and delicate ques- 
tions of our educational life. We are aristocratic enough to believe 
in the supremacy of our name and blood, and yet democratic 
enough to stand for equal privileges, and liberal enough to grant 
equality of opportunity. 

That we are vastly rich in undeveloped natural resources, the 
world well knows, but the important part of the life of a state, as of 
men, that part which controls, directs and makes great, is not 
matter but spirit. The state that accepts this truth, that follows 
the Man of Galilee in uplifting the minds of its people and sacrific- 
ing itself, if need be, to give equality of opportunity, grows perma- 
nently rich and great. Witness the difference between Spain, the 



James B. A swell. 59 

slave, Scotland, the free; between India, the feeble, and England, 
the strong; between Africa, the night, and America, the day; and 
tell me, if you will, what gives this supremacy, unless it be the spirit 
of democracy made effective and permanent by the growing spirit 
of universal education. 

This spirit has taken hold of our people. I would not have you 
think that in Louisiana we have just begun our educational life. 
Many years ago it was begun by Sheib, Boyd and others, while much 
has been recently accomplished by such men as Heard, Alder- 
man, Boyd, Caldwell, Keeny, Taylor, Dillard, Stephens, and scores 
of high-school men and women who have responded to every call 
made upon them for the advancement of public education in the 
state. But we are conscious to-day, as never before, of a mighty 
potential energy ready for expression. The hearts of our people 
have been stirred and their minds so quickened and illumined that 
they will not rest until good things have been done for the educa- 
tion of their children. And better still, the people are not begging 
for help, they are ready to do their full duty whenever that duty 
is made plain to them. 

One of the newest and mightiest forces in our educational work 
is the Federation of Women's Clubs. The last meeting in Novem- 
ber was a notable one. Several scholarships were created for girls 
in the higher institutions of the state, and the federation pledged 
itself unreservedly to the cause of public education, and I believe 
that the voice of the women in Louisiana is soon to be heard in no 
uncertain terms for better schools and school-houses for the chil- 
dren. 

With these forces moving the majority of our people, and with 
Governor-elect Blanchard pledged to the cause of liberal education, 
a man who has it in his heart to give the children of Louisiana the 
best educational conditions that money and energy and talent can 
create, can you wonder that the Department of Education enters 
upon its work hopeful, confident of a reasonable measure of suc- 
cess ? 

You have, no doubt, already foreseen some of the things we 
hope to do. The department, through the institute board, is 
arranging to hold a one week teachers' institute in every parish 
of the state between April ist and October ist. The institutes 
will be conducted by the corps of trained school workers, including 



6o The Conference for Education, 

the state superintendent of education, several parish superin- 
tendents, professors from the universities and industrial schools, 
teachers from the state normal school, principals of high schools, 
and several institute specialists from other states. The state 
superintendent will direct the work of all the institutes, and will 
attend each one in person for at least one day of the week. With 
five or six institute faculties at work at the same time it is confi- 
dently expected to reach the entire state within three months. 
Such a campaign for better schools will not only give powerful 
impetus to the work in those parishes and communities where 
educational forces are already active, but will serve to awaken 
interest and stimulate effort in the sections where there has hitherto 
been little advancement. 

This work is a preparation for a larger and more comprehen- 
sive campaign for good schools. In a word, we hope to divide the 
whole state into school districts, and in every district we want, not 
a lot, but an acre or more of land on which shall be erected a com- 
fortable school-house equipped with modern furniture and beauti- 
fied in an artistic manner, so that for eight months in the year the 
souls of the children may be lifted toward the true dignity of life 
and living. In this school-house we want not keepers, but teachers, 
who live, and love, and feel, and think, and move, whose master 
touch reveals to the child its kinship with Divinity and leads it to 
become more like the divine. To supervise the work of these 
teachers we want one who is not hired because he is cheap, but a 
man who is paid for his services because he is an expert at super- 
vision, and one who is especially fitted for the difficult task of in- 
spiring and supervising the schools. 

To secure these results we need money. But behind the get- 
tmg of money there must be educational sentiment, a feeling of 
need on the part of the people. We are creating the sentiment, 
and we will get the money. With the money we will build the 
schools, and from the schools will come the privileges of democracy 
and the opportunities of universal education. Then, indeed, will the 
pubHc schools in Louisiana be the center of life, and hope, and love. 

Dr. Charles D. Mclver, Member of the Southern Education 
Board, and President of the State Normal College, Greensboro, 
N. C, then addressed the Conference as follows: 



Charles D. M elver. 6i 

CHARLES D. McIVER. 

In my opinion the majority of the schools of the South need 
and need badly : 

1. Better houses and equipment. 

2. Longer terms. 

3. Stronger teachers. 

4. More effective supervision. 

Reducing these needs to a common denominator, we have four 
distinct calls for more money. Not only is it a call for more now 
— one time — but for all time. It is a perennial call. And, without 
discounting the very great value of temporary stimulating funds, it is 
nevertheless true that no man and no community was ever educated 
into strength unless the man or the community contributed to the 
training in self-denying drudgery and otherwise more than was 
contributed from all outside sources. 

It is the salvation of democracy that education cannot be 
bought or given or inherited or sold, like clothes and what we choose 
to call real estate. The person educated must contribute more to 
his education than all others combined, though he cannot do the 
task alone. Parents, teachers, taxpayers and philanthropists can 
aid him, but all of them combined cannot educate a man without 
his consent or without his systematic, patient toil. It is in this 
sense that every man is the architect of his own fortune. 

It is a fact, moreover, that the more we can induce a man to 
do for himself for his better training the more will he be able to do 
not only for himself but for others. The principle is as true for 
communities as it is for men. 

In one sense the Southern Education Board has the advantage 
of any other philanthropic board. It has nothing to give but advice, 
and has no work except to persuade the judgments and inspire the 
hearts and consciences of men. Its high mission is to teach adults 
to know and practise the truth that will make them and their 
children free. 

To persuade a man or a people to tax himself or themselves 
to the utmost for education is a glorious work. It is teaching 
them to sell all that they have, if necessary, in exchange for this 
pearl of great price, and I know that the angels must rejoice over 
one civic sinner who repents of his selfishness and hatred of taxes 



62 The Conference for Education. 

and becomes an enthusiastic supporter of universal education b}^ 
taxation. 

I Jiave introduced my report with these axioraatic and rather 
platitudinous statements to indicate exactly my point of view in 
the campaign I have helped to manage during the past two years. 

It has been my constant endeavor to persuade men and women 
to beautify their school-grounds, to build better houses and improve 
their equipment, and above all, to insist upon having a real teacher 
in each school-house. As none of these improvements can be 
brought about in any considerable degree without more money, 
and as more money can be had only by local taxation, I have 
made everything else in my plans secondary to honorably secur- 
ing votes for this fundamental necessity. 

I have discussed almost no other question because I wanted 
the cause of local taxation to become strong enough to have other 
stronger influences in our public life to seek an alliance with it, and 
strong enough, too, to make its enemies prefer not to encounter it 
openly at least. 

It has been the plan of our campaign in North Carolina, South 
Carolina and Georgia to prevent so far as possible any friction be- 
tween the State and the denominational colleges, so that every 
teacher and every partizan of all our institutions might have a good 
opportunity to become a strong and habitual defender of local 
taxation for rural schools. 

Along with local taxation wherever it has been adopted has 
come a number of good things, chief among them being the invaria- 
ble tendency to school consolidation and the building of better and 
larger houses. 

The press, as a rule, is friendly and is glad to announce every 
improvement in schools. One advantage of a constant campaign 
running through the entire year is the effect upon leaders of thought, 
who frequently are really watchers of the press and hasten to lead 
enthusiastically in whatever direction they see public opinion 
moving. 

In 1880 there were four local tax districts in North Carolina. 
In 1890 there were nine. In 1900 there were nineteen, and at the 
end of 1 90 1, when the present systematic campaign was begun, 
there were fifty-six. To-day there are 195, with the probability 
of raore than one hundred elections, representing every section of 



Charles D. M elver. 63 

the state, to be held before September. We have lost only about 
twenty elections during the past two years. 

It is interesting to note in this connction that in 1897 every 
school district in North Carolina voted upon the question of local 
taxation, and out of the thirteen hundred townships only twelve 
voted favorably. This was due to several causes, but one of the 
chief causes was that the teachers had no campaign fund and the 
question could not be discussed before the people. 

I have prepared a local tax map of North Carolina which tells 
interestingly the story of a great struggle against North Carolina's 
two ancient enemies — illiteracy and hostility to taxation — and shows 
how thoroughly the thought of the whole state must have been 
touched by the 170 elections held, and how that no section of the 
state has entirely escaped. 

It is well to note, however, that the greatest activity has been 
in Guilford, Mecklenburg and Henderson counties where the General 
Education Board and the cities of Greensboro and Charlotte agreed 
to donate $20,000 as a leverage to promote local taxation in the 
rural districts of those counties. The only county that rivals these 
is Dare, in the extreme eastern portion of the state, whose activity 
can be accounted for by the excellence and energy of its county 
superintendent, and from the further fact that in 1897 it estab- 
lished three local tax districts. The object lesson has had its effect 
and borne its natural fruit. 

Alamance county, where there have been about ten favorable 
elections, is the pioneer cotton-mill county of North Carolina, and 
it has had for a long time one of the best educated men in the state 
as its county superintendent. 

The value of an able county superintendent is well illustrated 
in Guilford county. On July i the most active friends of education 
there, being exceedingly desirous that the $8000 raised by citizens 
of Greensboro and the General Education Board as a bonus to 
stimulate local taxation should be wisely invested, co-operated 
with the County Board of Education to secure a well-trained super- 
visor of teachers. Mr. Thomas A. Sharpe, a native of Mecklenburg 
county, N. C, and once principal of the Goldsboro, N. C, public 
high school and until recently superintendent of the Darlington, 
S. C, public schools, was called from the latter position to become 
superintendent of schools of Guilford county. He is a trained 



64 The Conference for Education. 

trainer of teachers, and is a strong, tactful advocate of local taxa- 
tion. Since his term of service began July i, the annual public 
school fund of Guilford county has been increased by local taxation 
more than $3000. His salary is $1600 a year. I believe that the 
increase in the annual school fund of Guilford county by taxation 
will soon be equal to the entire amount contributed as a donation 
by the General Education Board and the citizens of Greensboro. 
Twelve school districts in Guilford county have local tax elections 
now pending. 

In North Carolina, as in other states, we have good state 
leadership and are developing local leadership. The man in the 
strategic place for educational advancement in the South is the 
county superintendent. For years to come the teachers of our 
rural schools must receive their training and inspiration from him, 
and he must also be a leader of the people in securing local taxation. 
Statistics will show that rural teachers are not secured, as a rule, 
from graduates of normal schools or teachers' colleges. Massachu- 
setts is a good and a fair illustration of this fact. Massachusetts 
has only about 200,000 rural population, whereas North Carolina 
has only 200,000 urban population. Massachusetts has had one or 
more normal schools since the days of Horace Mann, the number 
now being twelve; and yet about 1900 the state's report showed 
that only 43 per cent, of its teachers in urban and rural schools had 
any training whatever in a normal school, and that only 36 per cent, 
of its teachers were graduates of normal schools in Massachusetts 
or elsewhere. 

If the General Education Board, the Peabody Board and the 
Slater Board and similar philanthropic educational agencies wish 
to do the greatest service to public schools in the South, I believe 
that it would pay them to adopt some system of donation by which 
the county superintendent would be strengthened. Some wise 
soldier has said that an army of stags led by a lion would accomplish 
more than an army of lions led by a stag. 

If we could have ten county superintendents in each Southern 
state, equal in culture and power to the best city and state superin- 
tendents and with such compensation as would. permit them to 
devote their entire attention to leading the people and instructing 
the teachers of both races in teachers' institutes or teachers' schools, 
they would not only revolutionize the schools of the counties they 



Charles D. M elver. 65 

serve, but the example of these counties would influence every other 
community in each state. Such superintendents cannot be secured 
with the present salaries offered by the legally constituted authorities. 

During the year just closed I have attended four important 
conferences. The first in Atlanta, Ga., participated in by teachers, 
representing the different educational institutions, and other citi- 
zens like Hon. Hoke Smith, Bishop Candler, ex-Governor Northern 
and Governor Terrell. The second conference was at Columbia, 
S. C, which was attended by the representative educators of the 
state. In both states an executive committee was appointed to 
take charge of the educational campaign. In South Carolina this 
committee consisted of Governor Hey ward, State Superintendent 
0. B. Martin, and President D. B. Johnson of the Winthrop Normal 
and Industrial College. This committee has carried on an active 
campaign for school improvement, local taxation and the estab- 
lishment of libraries. During the year South Carolina, which al- 
ready had more than two hundred local tax towns and districts, 
increased this number by forty-three and developed much activity 
in the direction of school improvement, libraries, and consolidation^. 

In Georgia at present the hands of the people are tied so far as 
voting a local tax is concerned by a clause in the constitution, 
making it necessary to secure the approbation of two grand juries 
before an election for a special school tax can be held, and then it 
can be carried only by two-thirds of the registered vote. The last 
Georgia legislature submitted to the people an amendment to the 
constitution making it easy to call an election without the consent 
of the grand jury, and after the adoption of this amendment an 
election can be carried by two-thirds of the votes cast, which is an 
easier proposition than a majority of the registered vote. The 
campaign committee in Georgia of which Chancellor Hill is chair- 
man and State School Commissioner Merritt is manager and Mr. 
Hoke Smith, Bishop Candler and Superintendent Duggan and ex- 
Governor Northern are the other members, is making a campaign 
among the people and in the newspapers which it is believed will 
guarantee the adoption of the constitutional amendment, and will 
at the same time have the people in fit mood to adopt local taxation 
by counties as well as by school districts. 

I have kept in constant communication with the managers of 
these two campaigns, and I believe that all the money used there 



66 The Conference for Education. 

has been well invested and that it will bring forth good fruit. South 
Carolina as well as Georgia is preparing to have some changes in its 
local tax law, but I do not think it will need a constitutional amend- 
ment before moving forward rapidly. 

The other two conferences to which I referred were held in 
North Carolina — one at Greensboro, of prominent North Carolina 
women interested in our campaign for the improvement of public- 
school houses, and the other for the leading teachers of the colored 
race, at Raleigh. 

Since at different times during this conference you will hear 
from representatives of the campaign committees in Georgia and 
South Carolina, I will not make a more elaborate report for these 
states. 

In my report to the Conference a year ago at Richmond occurs 
the following paragraph: "Our able state superintendent of public 
instruction, Hon. J. Y. Joyner, has furnished me with statistics 
recently secured from most of the counties showing that in those 
counties there are now 79 towns and cities and rural communities 
that have a special local school tax, that elections are pending in 
45 districts, and that in nearly 100 other communities the question 
of a local school tax is being considered and agitated with probable 
elections soon." 

To make a comparison, the number of local tax districts is now 
194 instead of 79, making an increase of 115 during the year, or 
nearly 150 per cent. This shows that the local tax advocates won 
their fight in nearly all of the forty-five districts where elections 
were pending a year ago and in four-fifths of the one hundred other 
districts where agitation had then begun. Moreover, there are as 
many elections pending now as there were a year ago, and there is 
agitation for elections in as many new districts now as then. 

The total number of rural libraries in North Carolina estab- 
lished since our educational campaign began is 800. The aggregate 
number of volumes in these libraries is about 60,000. 

During the past two years the local tax has been voted in 140 
districts, about 1200 unnecessary small districts have been consoli- 
dated and 884 new school-houses have been built. The school 
funds have been increased and school terms lengthened, and in some 
cases the salaries of teachers and the county superintendents have 
been considerably increased. 



H. B. Frissell. 67 

This work has been accomplished under the gentle guiding 
hand of our popular and progressive state superintendent of public 
instruction, Hon. J. Y. Joyner, enthusiastically and effectively 
seconded by Governor Charles B. Aycock, that rare man and mag- 
netic educational statesman, and by the assistance of the associa- 
tion of representative educators for the promotion of public educa- 
tion in North Carolina, and the women's association for the im- 
provement of public-school houses and grounds. The part of the 
Southern Education Board in the work has been the paying of the 
campaign expenses of workers representing these two organizations. 
The women's association not only have done much valuable work 
for the improvement of school houses and grounds, but in many 
counties they have established as prizes for the most successful 
teacher in making these improvements scholarships sufficient in 
amount to pay the expenses of such teachers while attending a 
summer school. 

In conclusion, I wish to submit a matter of general interest — 
thee ffect of the loan fund established by the North Carolina legis- 
lature a little more than a year ago. Superintendent Joyner is recog- 
nized as the father of this scheme, and his statement of the results 
of its operation at the end of the first year is interesting and 
suggestive. 

The next speaker was Dr. Mollis Burke Frissell, Principal of 
Hampton Institute, Hampton, Virginia. His address follows: 

H. B. FRISSELL. 

During the past year an earnest endeavor has been made to 
rouse the people to the need of educating all the children of the 
commonwealth. Dr. Robert Frazer, the efficient agent of the 
Southern Education Board, has gone from county to county ad- 
dressing large bodies of the people in churches and court-houses. 
Though his duties as dean of the Columbian Law School in Wash- 
ington have prevented a continuous work in connection with the 
Southern Education Board, Hon. H. St. George Tucker has fre- 
quently been invited to discuss educational topics in different parts 
of the state, and has seldom refused. Both of these gentlemen 
report increasing interest. 

Dr. Tucker says: "During the past year I have visited nearly 



68 The Conference for Education. 

all of the educational institutions of the state- — the University of 
Virginia, William and Mary College, Roanoke College, the Virginia 
Polytechnic Institute, and Emory and Henry College. I have sev- 
eral times had audiences numbering 5000 people at the Baptist 
associations. I have been in every section of the state — the Valley, 
Southwest, Piedmont and Tidewater — and the interest of the peo- 
ple has been beyond my expectations. If there is any opposition, 
it is offered by a small minority only. I believe that public senti- 
ment is fast crystallizing into a belief of all the people that the 
education of both races is essential to the prosperity of the state." 
Dr. Frazer reports that he has visited sixty of the one hundred 
counties of the state, and some of them several times, with the 
purpose of arousing interest in some practical form of school better- 
ment. He reports improvement along the following lines: 

1. "Our general school law has been reconstructed in some 
measure, and the legislature is still engaged upon plans looking to 
the increased efficiency of the system. 

2. " It is a great thing to have on the state board men com- 
petent to take an intelligent view of the whole business of public 
education, and so free from the bias of political entanglements as 
to assure a purely patriotic stand on all questions that relate to 
the welfare of the schools. There is hope in the fact that the new 
board may be credited with at least two men of this sort. 

3. "Encouraging advance has been made also in the work of 
local supervision. So far as I have been able to observe, the ap- 
pointing power has been exercised with sharper discrimination; 
and almost without exception county superintendents of recent 
appointment are bringing to their important work better qualifica- 
tions, livelier interest and greater diligence than had hitherto 
marked the conduct of that office. The wholesome effects are 
manifest. There are a dozen well-qualified superintendents in the 
state who give nearly all their time to the schools, notwithstanding 
that the pay they get is wholly incommensurate with the work they 
do. And we have half a dozen counties whose schools, as a rule, 
would compare favorably with the best schools of like grade to be 
found anywhere. Ten other counties have superintendents who, 
"without special training for their work, are yet earnest in its dis- 
charge, and are achieving good results. I know seven others who 
show a goodly measure of interest in their schools and are doing 



H. B. Frisscll. 69 

what they can with the resources they have. In all of these twenty- 
nine (29) counties educational affairs are on the up-grade, and the 
outlook is highly encouraging. Of the remaining seventy-one (71) 
counties there are ten (10) in which I have no knowledge of school 
conditions; but it is reasonable to believe that in some of these, too, 
fairly good work may be found. Another feature worthy of notice 
is a growing interest in some quarters among the school trustees. 
I have within the last few weeks heard three of these officers speak 
in our educational meetings and two of them made strikingly good 
speeches on the practical conduct of school affairs. The term of 
office of the present body of superintendents expires June 30th, 
1905. After that we may hope for better things all along the line. 

4. "The stimulus of educational revival is also reaching the 
teachers. Three years ago the chief aim set forth in the constitu- 
tion of the State Teachers' Association was a fuller recognition of 
the teachers' service in the way of better pay without a word as to 
better service. Now this is all changed, professional standing 
through efficient service coming first, and the matter of pay drop- 
ping out of view. In the meantime the number of county associa- 
tions has risen from twenty-three (23) to sixty (60), with an aggre- 
gate membership of more than two thousand, being nearly one- 
third of all the white teachers in our public schools. Besides these 
county associations seven (7) of our institutions of higher learning 
have regularly organized associations in affiliation with the state 
association. When it is borne in mind that a little while ago our 
public schools were wholly ignored by these higher institutions, and 
that now the State University makes a point of advertising itself 
as "the capstone of the public-school system " the situation takes 
on new meaning. 

"The State Association is now concerning itself with a Teach- 
ers' Reading Course, looking to instructive and uplifting reading as 
well as pedagogical training. It has under consideration a scheme 
for a well-arranged course of study for rural schools, and the matter 
of high schools in every county is receiving serious study. The 
district associations hold frequent meetings, and they are proving 
highly useful in developing a professional spirit among the teachers, 
and otherwise promoting their efficiency. 

"Increasing interest in the work of teaching is seen also in the 
rapid growth of the State Normal School for Women. Four years 



70 The Conference for Education. 

ago this school numbered about two hundred and fifty, or less. 
It has now largely over five hundred (500) students. 

5. "There is improvement, too, in school-houses and school 
equipment. In many parts of the state we have new buildings 
that in design and construction would be considered creditable 
almost anywhere, and their number is steadily increasing. In 
some counties they have repaired and painted the old houses, and 
the general average of order and cleanliness is advancing. In a 
few counties most of the schools have libraries. In others a good 
beginning has been made, and interest in this important feature 
of school equipment is spreading. 

6. " The work of consolidation has been taken up in a dozen 
or more counties, and it is steadily gaining favor in the state. Rock- 
ingham, one of our largest and wealthiest counties, has probably 
done most in this direction. This county has now seventeen (17) 
two-room schools; five schools of three rooms each; four of seven 
rooms; one with eight; one with six; and one with ten rooms. The 
county employs one hundred (100) teachers in graded schools; and 
the people, where a little while ago they were opposing consolida- 
tion, are now making petitions for consolidated schools faster than 
the trustees can build the houses. Where transportation is neces- 
sary wagons are employed at $100 to $125 per term of seven 
months. The movement is making noteworthy progress in Acco- 
mac county also. The Mearsville graded school of this county is 
the result of merging four (4) schools into one. It has a handsome 
modern building, and employs three teachers. The enrolment is 
largely in excess of that of the four small schools, and a saving of 
$218 is effected in the cost of maintenance. The Pungoteague 
District High School employs five teachers, one of them teaching 
music. It has a new building with five school-rooms and an assem- 
bly hall. The term has been lengthened from six to eight months, 
Onancock, a village of 700 inhabitants, has a high school with six 
teachers in the academic work and one teacher of music. These 
seven teachers do the work formerly done by nine. The excellence 
of the school has led to the closing of a private academy which 
employed five teachers. Several outlying schools are soon to be 
brought in. Music, sewing and basketry are taught, and the term 
is for nine months. The details here given were gathered from 
reports made at the late meeting of the State Teachers' Association 



H. B. Frissell. 71 

held in November at the university. They are given for illustra- 
tion, not of what is general in the state, but to show the trend of 
school matters. And they can be duplicated in possibly a dozen 
counties. 

7. "A number of counties have already increased the local 
levy, no one objecting. The measure seems to be in well- 
nigh universal favor. In a community in Washington county 
where by additional levy the local fund had been raised to $480, 
a meeting of the people was held for the purpose of supplementing 
this sum, and in less than twenty minutes $400 more were raised 
by voluntary subscriptions. It was also agreed to make the ar- 
rangement permanent. In another neighborhood where the public 
fund allowed a salary of $35 the amount was raised by private sub- 
scription to $65 a month, thus making the services of a trained 
teacher available. Buchanan county has recently raised the local 
tax in every district in the county, to 50 cents on the hundred 
dollars' worth of property, the maximum rate allowed by law. 
They have also built in this county a $6000 house for a central 
high school and employed trained teachers for it. Other cases like 
these may be given; but these will adequately set forth the trend 
of educational sentiment in the state. 

8. "In many counties they are extending the school term; and 
it is quite likely that the forthcoming biennial report of the state 
superintendent will show an average of nearly seven months. 

9. " There is no more hopeful sign for the future of our schools 
than the improved public sentiment in favor of training for all the 
youth of the state irrespective of race or condition. Two years 
ago little was said about the schools. They have come to hold a 
prominent place among the objects of public concern. Especially 
noticeable is the changed attitude toward the question of education 
for the negroes. In half a year or more I have heard only two men 
utter a word out of sympathy with movements for the best things 
that education can bring the race ; and this notwithstanding that I 
constantly invite the freest expression of opinion on this as on all 
subjects relating to public education. And the negroes themselves 
are beginning to show a more sensible appreciation of schooling, 
with some readiness to make voluntary contributions for the better- 
ment of their school advantages. 

"The interest the Junior Order of American Mechanics is 



72 The Conference for Education. 

showing in the children is worthy of special mention. This 
organization is doing some valuable service in the way of procuring 
lectures, donating flags, and other things to foster a public spirit 
favorable to the schools. 

"The churches, too, are becoming more and more alive to the 
importance of the state's work in education. At the late meeting 
of the Baptist General Association of Virginia the subject of educa- 
tion received more than double the time given to any other subject 
on the program ; and the stress of several leading addresses was laid 
upon the importance of our public-school system and the Christian 
as well as the patriotic duty of giving the system our heartiest sup- 
port. At this meeting the matter of our peculiar obligation with 
respect to the intellectual and moral uplift of the negroes was con- 
sidered at length for the first time in the history of the association ; 
and a strong committee was appointed to memorialize the Southern 
Baptist Convention at its next meeting on this subject. The hearty 
unanimity with which the body indorsed this new movement de- 
rives the greater significance from the fact that the president of the 
association and the minister most prominent in the educational 
work of the denomination had both, but a short time ago, been 
opposed to giving any time in the district associations to the con- 
sideration of that phase of education which relates to the public 
schools. 

"These facts show the growth of a more wholesome sentiment 
in the state and a degree of interest in the common schools that 
means much for their future. But there still remains much to be 
done in the way of stimulating and of keeping alive educational 
interest." 

Dr. Chas. W. Kent, of the University of Virginia, who has 
done excellent service on the State Board of Education, at a pub- 
lic meeting in Richmond, made the following report on the improve- 
ment in the school laws of the state : 

I. "The principle of school inspection has been incorporated 
into our organic law. In view of the inadequate supervision of a 
large and diversified state this authority conferred upon the state 
board to engage school inspectors for general or specific purposes 
is of great value. In the Northern and Western States this method 
of additional supervision has been used with the most beneficent 
results. 



H. B. Frissell. 73 

2. "Politics has been eliminated to this extent, that no 
division superintendent and no trustee may be either a federal, 
state or county officeholder, except that fourth-class postmasters 
and public notaries are exempt from this provision. It remains 
for the State Board of Education under its own regulations and by 
its elections to debar partizan politicians of the aggressive type. 

3. "The School Electoral Board is rendered less political by 
the fact that this board is now composed of the superintendent, 
who cannot be an officeholder and should not be a politician, — of a 
non-officeholding qualified resident voter, and of the common- 
wealth's attorney. Two-thirds of this board is non-political and 
the other third should be. 

4. " Nepotism is as far as possible eradicated. An abuse that 
has grown and spread in Virginia until it has done incalculable 
harm is the habit trustees have of appointing members of their own 
families to positions as teachers. In many cases this has been done 
with a firm belief that the appointments were made solely on merit 
and without any favoritism of kinship ; in other cases it has been 
done with no justification whatever. By declaring that no board 
of trustees may appoint any wife, brother, sister, son, or daughter 
of any member of such board, the legislature has reorganized for 
the better a large number of district boards of the state. This 
legislation struck at the heart of one of the greatest evils of the 
public-school system. 

5. "Consolidation of schools and transportation of pupils are 
sanctioned by the enactment that district boards may provide by 
regulation against so great a multiplication of schools, in propor- 
tion to the funds, as will tend to cause a low grade of instruction. 

6. "The local tax rate is increased and fixed at a sum not less 
than seven and one-half nor more than twenty cents on the hundred 
dollars for the county, and at seven and one-half to twenty cents 
on the hundred dollars for the district, with the further provision 
that by a special vote a county may increase its entire levy for 
county and district purposes to fifty cents on the hundred dollars. 
This is a most encouraging improvement in the financial condition, 
and promises much improvement in equipment, length of terms, 
and pay of teachers." 

One of the most important movements of the year was the 
appointment by Governor Montague of what is known as the Co- 



74 The Conference for Education. 

operative Education Commission, composed of representatives of 
the leading educational institutions of the state, the governor, 
superintendent of public instruction, and attorney-general, to- 
gether with a number of prominent men and women especially 
interested in the cause of education. The program presented at 
the first meeting of the commission in Richmond in March included 
a nine months school for every child ; a high school within reasonable 
distance of every child ; well-trained teachers for all public schools ; 
the supervision of schools; the introduction of agricultural and in- 
dustrial training into the schools ; the promotion of libraries and the 
correlation of public libraries and public schools; schools for the 
defective and dependent classes; and the organization of a citizens' 
educational association in every community. Already local asso- 
ciations have been formed in different parts of the state, with com- 
mittees having in charge the improvement of school grounds, the 
decoration of school-houses, and the holding of public educational 
meetings. The aim of these committees is to make the school the 
center of community life throughout the state. In July, during 
the session of the School of Methods at the University of Virginia, 
a public meeting was held under the auspices of the commission 
where the objects of the organization were set forth by leading 
educators of the state. Professor Kent of the university presided 
and the heads of a number of the prominent educational institu- 
tions made addresses indorsing the plans of the commission. It 
is planned to hold similar meetings in various parts of the state 
during the winter. The cordial co-operation of the colleges and 
churches, as well as the press, in this movement is one of its hopeful 
features. 

After an address by Dr. Charles W. Dabney, President of the 
University of Tennessee, Dr. Edwin A. Alderman, member of the 
Southern Education Board and President of Tulane University, 
New Orleans, La., was introduced by the president of the confer- 
ence. Said Dr. Alderman: 



Edwin A. Alderman. 75 

EDWIN A. ALDERMAN. 

Many years ago Ernest Renan made an attack upon the doc- 
trine of democracy, declaring that the highest point of a civiHzation 
should constantly become higher, not that the general level should 
constantly be raised. That was plainly the ideal of aristocracy. 
Our American thought for good or ill is the ideal of democracy — 
the constant raising of the general level — and we can only progress 
in directions consistent with that ideal. This ideal makes all 
progress more difficult, but not impossible, and when achieved 
very much stronger, broader, and more permanent than any 
progress that nations have yet known of. 

The chief function of this board has been to aid and abet the 
sort of democratic sentiment that guards, first and foremost, the 
conditions about its own home, the education of its children and 
the elevation of its standard of life. All of my activities, therefore, 
as the director of this board, since April, 1902, have been devoted to 
promoting, invigorating and sustaining the natural impulses of the 
people of this region toward the creation and maintenance of an 
adequate school system for the children of all the people, high and 
low, white and black. The task resolves itself, to my mind, in this 
form: 

1. The development of an irresistible public opinion for popu- 
lar education by popular effort. 

2. The crystallization of this sentiment into money, largely 
through local taxation. 

3. The birth of a larger and finer conception of the duties and 
responsibilities of school-teachers and school-officers and of the part 
played in the training of communities by comfortable and beautiful 
school-houses. 

In former reports I think I have sufficiently detailed the scope, 
the method and machinery devised for the prosecution of these 
ends, and also the obstinate difficulties in the way of their accom- 
plishment. I shall address myself to-day to a brief statement of 
the results of educational activity in my region during the past two 
years with the understanding that these results must not be thought 
of as due solely to the activities of the Southern Education Board. 
Much of these results would have come to pass if there had been no 
board, let us concede. But it is just to claim that this board has 



76 The Conference for Education. 

stimulated and encouraged and made more efficient every activity 
at work during this period. The campaign actively in Louisi- 
ana since June, 1902, may be summarized as follows: 

Meetings. Addresses. 

Under Himes as agent 30 70 

Under Steele as secretary 27 38 

Under Alleman as secretary 51 83 

Without aid from Campaign Committee, 
but probably very much stimulated 

by it 100 150 

Director and miscellaneous 60 60 

Totals 268 401 

This includes a special campaign planned last summer, covering 
nineteen parishes in the state, in which were engaged forty-five of 
the leading men of the state in education, politics, religion and in 
industrial life. Two thousand copies, Southern Education, Louis- 
iana Edition, were distributed as a campaign text -book, and one 
thousand copies of "Some Problems of the Rural Schools," on the 
consolidation of schools have been distributed. 

In regard to the education of the negro, the policy of the 
director of this campaign has been simply to claim that it is the 
policy of the Southern States, embodied in their Constitution, to 
educate the negro, and that it is the solemn duty of the advanced 
group of people in these states to find the right sort of training for 
the negro, and to give to him every chance that training can give a 
man to make of himself a useful and effective member of the com- 
munity. In all of our movements we have been earnestly and 
heartily assisted by the pulpit, the press, the educational associa- 
tions and all the organized forces of public sentiment. In nineteen 
parishes out of fifty-nine the increase from all sources in the past 
two years has been $243,781 in income and $165,000 in equipment,, 
a total of $409,741. 

Increase in income $243,781 

New school-houses (72 in 16 parishes) 136,000 

Repairs and furnishings 29,000 

Grand total for 19 parishes for two years $409,741 

While these parishes have been the most active, we are certain 



Edwin A. Alderman. 77 

that there has been much done in the other parishes, from which 
no relative data could be obtained. Thirty-three districts have been 
consolidated in six parishes, and nine are contemplating it in the 
early future. 

The following shows the increase of the state for the year 1903 : 

Increase in state apportionment $250,000 

Increase from 19 parishes in income and equipment. 409,741 
Estimate from 40 other parishes 1 20,000 

Total increase for the year 1903 $779,741 

Increase for year 1902 $239,000 

Increase for year 1903 779.741 

Total increase of school fund, 1902-1903. .$1,018,741 

From the state superintendent's report for the year ending 
December 31, 1902, I quote the following: 

"There are, I think, no less than thirty -five parishes in which 
special taxes have been voted by the people, and I consider that the 
total amount of funds raised from this source of revenue throughout 
the state is no less than $200,000 a year. This amount added to 
the excess of $179,000 shown by the treasurer's annual report for 
the year 1902 makes a total increase in the school revenue for the 
year 1902 of $379,000 over that of 1901 — that is, if the special taxes 
now levied were collected also during the year 1902. The fund 
from this source of revenue (the special tax) is increasing every year, 
for the people of several parishes are getting into the habit of con- 
tributing voluntarily to the support of their schools. I look for- 
ward with hope to the time in the very near future when every 
rural school in the state will be mainly supported by local taxes 
voluntarily paid by patrons in the respective settlements." 

It will be noticed that the estimate (special tax) furnished by 
me for the two years is very much below the estimate of the state 
superintendent for special taxes for 1902 alone. The probability 
is that the truth lies somewhere between the two estimates. The 
progress for 1903 has certainly been greater than that of 1902. 
There is no doubt about that , and I believe if the whole truth were 
known, the increase of the two years ending December 31, 1903, 
would amount to considerably over a million. 



78, The Conference for Education. 

Again, to quote from the same report of the state superin- 
tendent : 

" In closing this report, I am happy to state that the friends of 
education are more numerous and more earnest than at any other 
period in the history of the state. Encouragement is heard from 
all sides. The pulpit, the press, the associations, and all the organs 
of public sentiment are united in their efforts to encourage the 
work of our schools and to diffuse the blessings of education among 
all classes of people." 

The superintendent might have truthfully added that the 
greatest factor in bringing about the results which he has so vividly 
set forth has been the Committee for the Promotion of Education 
in Louisiana. 

The following shows the remarkable progress made in Lafayette 
parish during the two years ending December 31, 1903.: 

1901 1903 

Parish superintendent's salary $200 $1200 

Total school fund $16,000 $30,000 

Special taxes for schools $10,000 $24,000 

Trained Teachers employed 2 22 

Average salary paid teachers $39 $47 

Police jury appropriations $4000 $7000 

Corporation tax, town of Lafayette $3000 

Teachers employed 41 55 

Comfortable, modern school -houses, rural 6 

Average cost of school -houses, rural $200 $1000 

($1000 is the average cost of the six new 
school-houses built in rural districts.) 

Number of schools with modern desks 2 12 

Attendance 900 2000 

Amount of money raised by contributions, 

entertainments, etc $4000 

The general summary of results as evidenced by the returns 
from the nineteen parishes is as follows: 

Districts. 

Special taxes voted before Jan. i, 1902, 4 years 138 

Special taxes voted since Jan. i, 1902, 19 parishes, 2 

years 130 



Total number of districts reported 268 

The vital points in this whole statement of results are these: 



Edwin A. Alderman 79 

The total increase in the school fund for Louisiana for the two 
years 1901-1903 is $1,018,741. Both the state superintendent, 
Hon. J. V. Calhoun, and the secretary of this campaign, Mr. L. J. 
Alleman, state that this does not include the full returns from 
thirty-five parishes in which special taxes have been voted by the 
people amounting to a total of $200,000, $80,000 of which is not 
included in this estimate. 

In my judgment all this is most favorable. The new adminis- 
tration has come into office in Louisiana, pledged on every stump in 
the state to the idea of promoting the education of all the people in 
Louisiana. The retiring government has been consistent, and de- 
voted and earnest in this work for education, but the new govern- 
ment has a singular opportunity to revolutionize the educational 
life of Louisiana. The state superintendent, whom you know, is a 
teacher of youth and enthusiasm and power. The governor has 
shown in a thousand utterances his understanding and his convic- 
tion of this great question of statesmanship. I consider the present 
time a revolutionary time in the educational life of Louisiana. 
These men know their task and are determined to carry it through 
to great results. 

The work of the future is: 

1. To conduct campaigns in parishes of Louisiana where the 
school term exists for five or six months. 

2. To prepare a new school law for Louisiana embodying 
consolidation as a law and strengthening the whole system 
through legislation. 

3. Infinite care as to the appointments of the parish 
boards of education. 

The immediate work of the Campaign Committee of Louisiana 
has been somewhat hindered by a political campaign, but this was 
apparent rather than real, for this whole campaign has been a 
campaign of education. Every speaker of whatever side devoted 
a large portion of his time to a discussion of education, which is a 
most hopeful sign in our political life. 

Permit me to express my appreciation of the able services of 
Mr. L. J. Alleman of Lafayette parish, who has acted as executive 
secretary of the campaign committee, to the retiring superintendent, 
Mr. J. V. Calhoun, to Presidents Aswell and Caldwell, and many 
others whom I cannot mention. 



8o The Conference for Education. 

I do not believe that so small a sum of money spent by any 
board, in stimulating the educational activities of the people has 
ever achieved such splendid results in the history of money spend- 
ing. The educational awakening in Louisiana during the past two 
years has been phenomenal. An overpowering public sentiment 
has been aroused. The people want schools and are willing to pay 
for them. 

During the months of June, July and August the State Insti- 
tute Board of Louisiana proposes holding a one week teachers' 
institute in every parish of the state. It is intended that these 
institutes shall not only act as occasions to give instruction to teach- 
ers, but as occasions of great public gatherings and opportunities 
for stimulating effort in sections where there has hitherto been little 
advancement. It is my purpose, with the consent of this board, to 
put into this movement all of the available resources of the board 
in order that the entire state may feel in an organized way the 
effects of a sharp, intense and earnest campaign. 

The result of campaign operations in Mississippi has been 
even more surprising than those of Louisiana. The state superin- 
tendent of Mississippi, Hon. H. L. Whitfield, who is a member of 
this Conference here, will speak for himself in a much stronger 
way than I could speak for him, but there are such vital facts con- 
nected with educational activity in Mississippi that I must call 
your attention to them. Mississippi is now levying two and a half 
millions of dollars for education, and at the last session of the 
legislature 75 per cent, of all appropriations were for education. 

At the beginning of the campaign three counties and seventy- 
four separate school districts were levying local taxes. Now 
thirty-six counties and ninety-two separate districts are levying 
local taxes for schools. The annual increase in the state appor- 
tionment has been $555,000. The average term of the rural schools 
has increased from ninety to one hundred and twenty-three days. 
The average pay of the teachers has increased something over four 
dollars per month. More liberal school legislation — (a) A law has 
been passed increasing the salaries of the county superintendents. 
40 per cent, {b) The legislature has removed restriction on 
local taxes as to taxes levied for schools, (c) Maximum salary of 
the rural teachers has been raised from $55 to $65. {d) Giving 
local boards the power to largely increase appropriations for 



C. Alphonso Smith. 8i 

school-houses. Stimulating effects on teachers: — Large increase is 
shown in the number of teachers attending summer schools and 
institutes. Every county has a county teachers' association, 
whereas, before this movement only a few of the counties had such 
an organization. The number of school-house^ built and improved 
has been largely in excess of any ten years' period heretofore. 

Immediately following Dr. Alderman's report the Conference 
took a recess until the evening. 



SECOND DAY. 

EVENING SESSION. 

The Conference was called to order by the president, shortly 
after 8 p. m., in the Jefferson Theatre. The first speaker to be 
introduced was Dr. C. Alphonso Smith, Professor of English in the 
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N. C, who spoke on 
the subject of " Industrialism and Literature." 

C. ALPHONSO SMITH. 

No one needs to be told that the age in which we live is pre- 
eminently an industrial age. We read it in countless newspapers; 
we hear it in the whir of machinery ; we see it in the evidences 
of material prosperity all about us; and we are made to feel it in 
a certain practical way of looking at things and a certain business 
way of doing things, both of which are characteristically American. 

In no other part of the country has industrial progress been so 
marked of late as in the South, and nowhere else does this progress 
present so striking a contrast to the pre-existing order of things. 
There are men in this audience still in the prime of life who remem- 
ber when the South was almost wholly agricultural; but since 1870 
so swift have been her strides in manufacturing enterprise that 
statistics become obsolete before they can be tabulated. The out- 
put of manufactured cotton goods will at the present rate be more 
than doubled in four years, and even if this astonishing progress is 
maintained it will be thirty years before the South will manufacture 
all the cotton that she raises, and during those thirty years not only 
will the cotton crop increase, but the needs of the world in the mat- 
ter of cotton goods will presumably increase in like ratio. 



82 The Conference for Education. 

When we add to this the proposed construction of the Panama 
canal and the industrial advantages that must accrue thereby to 
the South, the man is not to be envied whose pulse does not quicken 
and whose imagination does not kindle at the vista that stretches 
before us, 

'Tis a South whose gaze is cast 

Not wholly on the past, 

But whose bright eyes the skies of promise sweep, 

Whose feet in paths of progress swiftly leap. 

And whose fresh thoughts, like cheerful rivers, run 

Through odorous ways to meet the morning sun. 

But there are many excellent persons, chiefly from the ranks 
of literary men and teachers of literature, who see in our industrial 
progress a menace to our literary life. They believe that as in- 
dustrialism advances literature must necessarily decline; that we 
cannot serve two masters, and that literature is destined to go 
down in the struggle with its stronger and coarser antagonist. 

This view of an inherent antagonism between literature and 
industrialism implies a radical misconception of both. Industrial- 
ism is not materialism, nor is it utilitarianism. These are theories 
of life, while industrialism is a means of living. Viewed as a whole, 
industrialism is the subsistence of the race on the least expenditure 
of time and labor. It is the matrix that holds within itself the 
possibility of all other activities. It is the substructure of society, 
and conditions its modes of self-expression. 

The peril of possible degeneration into materialism or utili- 
tarianism is more than counterbalanced by the immediate and 
permanent benefits that industrialism confers. Industrialism 
brings in its train a sense of popular independence and solidarity 
that are as bulwarks in periods of national crisis. It means de- 
velopment of natural resources; it means emancipation from the 
temporal needs that threaten and thwart the genius of literature; 
it means happy homes and diffused contentment; it means wealth, 
and wealth means more free schools, longer terms, and more efficient 
service ; wealth means not necessarily more universities, but stronger 
and more adequately endowed universities. Away with the idea 
that we must deindustrialize a nation ; that we must hush the hum 
of its myriad activities, before the muse of literature will deign 
to alight ! 



C. Alphonso Smith. ■83 

But the conception of literature in the supposed antithesis be- 
tween it and industriaUsm is no less perverted. These guardians 
of hterature, pure and undefiled, would not only materialize indus- 
trialism — they would unduly etherealize literature. They would 
devitalize it. They establish their antithesis by accentuating the 
mechanical trend of the one, the transcendental trend of the other. 
But the literature that is too finicky and anaemic to live in an in- 
dustrial age does not merit to live in any age. "The purpose of 
literature," says Morley, "is to bring sunshine into our hearts and 
to drive moonshine out of our heads." 

Literature is not handicapped by the division of men into 

employer and employee; she makes her appeal to all alike. Says 

one of our poets: 

I believe that in all ages 
Every human heart is human. 

And wherever the human heart is human literature proffers her 
guidance and offers her ministrations. 

It cannot be too strongly urged that hterature is the expression 
of life, and that the more full, free, rich, varied and abundant life 
is, the more full, free, rich, varied and abundant will the literature 
be. The dramatists of Elizabeth's reign did not create the vital 
energy of their time. They reflected it. They interpreted it. 
They were not the fountains, they were the reservoirs. New oppor- 
tunities, new discoveries, new occupations, had opened new vistas^ 
and literary greatness went hand in hand with material prosperity. 

Let us never forget that literature means life in all its vastness, 
in all its complexity, in all its grades. When Queen Victoria told 
Tennyson how much comfort she had found in "In Memoriam" 
when called upon to mourn the death of her husband, Prince Albert, 
she gave no better illustration of the scope and function of litera- 
ture than did the poor washerwoman who pasted Longfellow's lines 
on " Maidenhood" above her washtub and who, as she bent over her 
daily task, lifted her soul back to the level of faith and hope and 
purity so lovingly sung by the poet. When Tennyson died, clasp- 
ing in his hand Shakespeare's "Cymbeline," he furnished no better 
illustration of the scope and function of literature than did the be- 
grimed miners of Newcastle who came up from their sunless haunts 
to stop Longfellow's carriage, to grasp his hand and say "God bless 
you for writing 'The Psalm of Life.'" 



84 The Conference for Education. 

It is therefore in their joint relation to human need that Htera- 
ture and industriaHsm find their immutable reconciliation. Antag- 
onism can exist only when literature loses its grip on life or when 
industrialism degenerates into mammonism. 

No more striking confirmation of the view that I advocate 
could be furnished than the fact that every great industrial era in 
English and American history has been at the same time pre-emi- 
nently a literary era. As this fact has been hitherto overlooked, 
let me call briefly to your attention the three great industrial periods 
of modern times. I shall merely sketch these periods, leaving to you 
the pleasure of filling in the outlines at your leisure. The facts are 
undisputed and may be found in any up-to-date history of modern 
industrialism. 

The first industrial revolution came in the reign of Elizabeth 
(1558— 1603.) All through the middle ages the little country of 
Flanders, just across the channel from England, had been the manu- 
factory of Europe. England did not manufacture her own wool; 
she sent it to Flanders, to be received back in fine textile goods. 
Flanders made the profits and England paid the freights. But in the 
reign of Queen Elizabeth, for reasons which I need not enumerate, 
Flemish refugees came to England, taught the EngHsh peasantry 
their industrial arts, and, for the first time, England ceased to be 
dependent on Flanders and became herself a wool manufacturing 
country. This economic change is of vast significance, and the 
parallel between the industrial conditions 6i Elizabeth's reign and 
the industrial conditions in the South since 1870 is full of interest 
and suggestiveness. In this parallel cotton replaces wool, for 
cotton did not then figure in English history as an industrial fac- 
tor. 

The manufacturing population was not confined to the English 
towns, but spread all over the country. Even North England, 
which had lagged far behind South England (here we must reverse 
our parallel), now showed signs of intense industrial activity and 
entered into healthy competition with the more southern sections. 
Of course it was all domestic manufacture; it was handiwork. 
But England increased rapidly in wealth, in commercial power, in 
all that constitutes material prosperity. 

The keels of Elizabeth's bold freebooters, Raleigh, Drake, 
Frobisher and Hawkins, vexed all seas and brought treasures from 



C. Alphonso Smith. S$ 

all shores. Sir Thomas Gresham founded the first Royal Exchange. 
England felt as never before the thrill of a new industrial life and 
the thrill of a rounded nationalism born of industrial freedom. I 
have often thought that when Shakespeare spoke of "this precious 
stone set in the silver sea, this blessed plot, this earth, this realm, 
this England," there passed before his eye not only a vision of 
armed and warlike England girt by fearless defenders, but a vision 
of happy English homes filled with the peace and contentment that 
spring from self-supporting toil. 

Elizabeth's reign was, then, peculiarly an industrial epoch. 
I need not tell you that her reign was and is the glory of English 
letters. It is needless to rehearse those illustrious names that will 
perish only with the language that you and I speak. My purpose 
is merely to show that in this wonderful period literature found not 
a foe but a friend in industrialism. Both were the products of a 
common national awakening; and industrialism, by deepening the 
sense of national power and greatness, contributed to literature, 
for a nation's literature is but the expression of the national self- 
consciousness. 

Let us pass now to another industrial revolution nearer our 
own time. In 1775 a memorable date in our own history, James 
Watt began the manufacture of steam-engines. The change from 
the domestic system of industrialism to the modern method of 
production by machinery and steam-power was sudden and violent. 
Before the year 1800 all the great inventions of Watt, Arkwright, 
Fulton and Hargreaves had been completed, and the modern fac- 
tory system had begun. The writers on industrial history tell us 
that "England increased her wealth tenfold and gained a hundred 
years' start in front of the nations of Europe." In fifteen years 
(1788— 1803) the cotton trade trebled itself. 

Of course vigorous protests were made against this spirit of 
rampant industrialism. Thomas De Quincey, then only fifteen 
years of 'age, complained in 1800 that he could not stir out of doors 
without being "nosed by a factory, a cotton bag, a cotton dealer, 
or something else allied to that detestable commerce." The Jere- 
miahs and Cassandras believed that everything was going to the 
"demnition bowwows." 

But what was literature doing? She was witnessing a renais- 
sance second only to that of "the spacious times of great Eliza- 



86 The Conference for Education. 

beth." So far from being materialized she passed into her romantic 
period, her Hberal era. This was the age that nourished Keats, 
Shelley, Byron, Scott, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Burns and Burke. 
In a love of nature that made all seasons seem as spring, in devotion 
to democratic ideals, in variety of range and intensity of feeling, 
this period takes precedence of Elizabeth's reign. The literary 
Outburst can best be described in Coleridge's lines: 

And now 'twas like all instruments, 

Now like a lonely flute ; 
And now it was an angel's song 

That makes the heavens be mute. 

It was of this age that Wordworth said : 

Joy was it in that dawn to be alive, 
But to be young was very heaven. 

There has been but one other great industrial era marked by 
wide-reaching discovery and fruitful invention. It falls within the 
fifteen years from 1830 to 1845. Those years are the storage-battery 
of the industrial, and also of the literary forces that have shaped our 
Victorian era. In those years railroads first began to intersect the 
land, telegraph lines were first stretched and the ocean was crossed 
for the first time by steam-propelled vessels. All of these mechani- 
cal triumphs tended to annihilate time and space. The products of 
manufacture could now be sent with despatch to the most distant 
quarters. Nations came closer together. The two hemispheres 
became and have continued one vast arena of industrial inter- 
change. Even Tennyson catches the industrial inspiration, and 
in 1842 celebrates in the same breath the glories of invention and 
the triumphs of commerce : 

For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see, 
Saw the vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be ; 
Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails, 
Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales. 

But let us look at the purely literary record of these mechanical 
and industrial years. Every student knows that the English 
writers who have dominated the literary life of our Victorian era, 
and who bid fair to dominate many decades of Our present century, 
are Tennyson, Browning and Mrs. Browning in poetry; Dickens, 
Thackeray and George Eliot in fiction ; Ruskin and Carlyle in mis- 



C. Alphoiiso Smith. 8.7 

cellaneous literature. Every one of these writers rose to promi- 
nence between 1830 and 1845. Before 1830 they were unknown; 
by 1845 iiot to know them was to confess inexcusable ignorance. 

It is equally noteworthy that in 1830, with the single exception 
of Washington Irving's work, we had no distinctive literature in 
America; but in 1845 we were represented by Longfellow, Lowell, 
Whittier, Hawthorne, Emerson and Holmes, the six names that 
have given the New England states their incontestable supremacy 
in American literature. 

But why did not the South respond to this last literary and 
industrial movement? Why did she wait until 1870.? Because in 
1830 her energies began to be more and more absorbed in defense 
of her constitutional views and of her cherished institutions. The 
year 1830, that ushered in the era of opportunity to others, wit- 
nessed the memorable debate between Robert Y. Hayne of South 
Carolina and Daniel Webster — the most significant contest that the 
senate of the United States has ever seen. It was the opening can- 
non of a struggle that was to end only on the field of Appomattox. 
Sectional lines began to be drawn closer and closer. The South 
was thrown more and more on the defensive. She was shut in 
more and more from outside influences. Her industrial system, 
based on slave labor, stood as a barrier to the new industrial move- 
ment; and the enforced defense of this system, together with the 
political problems and prejudices that it engendered, threw litera- 
ture into the background and brought oratory and statesmanship 
to the front. 

But a change soon came, and the old South proved that in her 
hand the sword was mightier than the pen. Defeated though she / 
was, she has accepted the arbitrament of battle and, with an ac- 
quiescence as beautiful as it is rare, she thanks the God of battles 
that slavery is no more. She has adjusted herself to the changed 
conditions, and with the adjustment there has come a broader and 
more varied life. 

ThenewSouthinherits the virtues of the old, for she is the child 
of the old. She will listen to no praise, she will accept no honors, ' 
that must be bought by repudiation of her past. As she looks , 
toward the future with courage in her heart and confidence on her 
brow, she yet cherishes above price the stainless and knightly' 
heritage that the old South has bequeathed to her. 



88 " The Conference for Education. 

With new economic ideas, with an ever-increasing development 
of her natural resources, with a more flexible industrial system, a 
more rational attitude toward labor and more enlightened methods 
of education, there has come a literary inspiration impossible before ; 
and the year 1870, which statisticians take as the birth year also 
of our new industrial movement, has more than made amends for 
the year 1830. The words which Sidney Lanier wrote to his wife 
in 1870 reflect the nascent promise of the time: "Day by day 
. . . a thousand vital elements rill through my soul. Day by 
day the secret deep forces gather which will presently display 
themselves in bending leaf and waxy petal and in useful fruit and 
grain." 

Those words were hardly written before Irwin Russell, of Mis- 
sissippi, opened a new province to American literature by his skilful 
delineations of negro character. Two years later Maurice Thomp- 
son is hailed by Longfellow as "a new and original singer, fresh, 
joyous and true." In 1875 Sidney Lanier attains national fame, 
and the six years of life that remained to him were to be filled with 
bursts of imperishable song. In 1876 Joel Chandler Harris annexed 
the province that Irwin Russell had discovered and "Uncle Remus" 
quietly assumed a place in the world's literature of humor and folk- 
lore never filled till then. Two years later Miss Murfree, better 
known as Charles Egbert Craddock, began to sketch the ilHterate 
mountaineers of East Tennessee. The decade closed with the - 
appearance in letters of George W. Cable, whose "Grandissimes," 
however questionable as local history, is unquestionable as litera- 
ture. 

The next decade, that from 1880 to 1890, witnessed the advent 
of Thomas Nelson Page, of Virginia, and James Lane Allen, of Ken- 
tucky. But I need not call the roll further. Suffice it to say, that 
in 1888 {Forum for December) ex- Judge Albion W. Tourgee, who 
cannot be charged with undue Southern sympathies, declared that 
a foreigner studying the current magazine literature of the United 
States "without knowledge of our history, and judging our civiliza- 
tion by our fiction, would undoubtedly conclude that the South 
was the seat of intellectual empire in America." What a literary 
revolution do these words indicate ! 

In this connection, let me call attention to the purely literary 
significance of the Civil War. It is a truism to say that the war 



C. Alphonso Smith. 89 

meant far more to the South than to the North. To the North 
it meant the abolition of slavery and the preservation of the Union. 
To the South it meant decimated famihes, smoking homesteads, 
and the passing forever of a civiHzation unique in human history. 
But literature loves a lost cause, provided honor be not lost. 

Hector, the leader of the defeated Trojans, Hector the warrior, 
slain in defense of his own fireside, is the most princely figure that 
the Greek Homer has portrayed. The Roman Virgil is proud to 
trace the lineage of his people, not back to the victorious Greeks, 
but on to the defeated Trojans. England's greatest poet laureate 
finds his amplest inspiration not in the victories of his Saxon ancestors 
over King Arthur, but in King Arthur himself and his peerless 
Knights of the Round Table, vanquished though they were in battle. 
And so it has always been: the brave but unfortunate reap always 
the richest measure of literary immortality. 

More than two thousand years ago Leonidas and his 300 
Spartans dared to confront the countless hordes of Xerxes. 
Defeated? Annihilated! But on the pages of the world's litera- 
ture and wherever heroic hearts respond to heroic deeds, Leonidas 
and his brave 300 still stand outlined against that Grecian sky, an 
incentive to valor. Fifty years ago Lord Cardigan and his fearless 
600 made the immortal charge at Balaklava. Defeated? Anni- 
hilated! But on the pages of the world's literature and wherever 
heroic hearts respond to heroic deeds, Lord Cardigan and his daunt- 
less 600 are riding yet. Forty years ago Pickett and his devoted 
followers made their heroic charge at Gettysburg. Defeated? 
Annihilated! But the time is coming — it is nearly here — when on 
the pages of the world's literature and wherever heroic hearts 
shall respond to heroic deeds, Pickett and his peerless band shall 
charge and charge forever. 

Do you remember that tender scene in King Lear, where Cor- 
delia stands in the presence of her father, despised, disinherited, 
forsaken? As her cowardly suitor slinks from the room because 
Cordelia's inheritance has been lost, the King of France steps for- 
ward and on bended knee says: 

Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich, being poor; 
Most choice, forsaken; and most loved, despised; 
Thee and thy virtues here I seize upon; 
Be it lawful, I take up what's cast away. 



po The Conference for Education. 

And so when brave men have fought for the right, as God gave 
them to see the right, but fought in vain; when great orators have 
pleaded for justice, as God gave them to understand justice, but 
pleaded in vain; when the bugles call no more; when the banners 
are tattered and trailing; when the shouts of victory are forever 
hushed, and the miserere of defeat is chanted over the graves of a 
buried army; when all, all, is lost save honor, it is then that the 
muses of poetry and song stoop from their celestial heights and lift 
the dear old lost cause up, up, into the unchanging realm of litera- 
ture. 

Thus if history means anything, it means that, as the years 
go by, American literature is to be more and more permeated by 
Southern history, Southern traditions, and Southern idealism. 
' "The tender grace of a day that is dead" is ours and ours forever. 
The South is destined to play an influential part in the development 
of American industrialism; she is destined to play a greater part 
in the molding of American literature. 

I have tried to make clear but one truth: Literature and 
industrialism are but different phases of a nation's activity. While 
each remains true to its goal there can be no antagonism, but only 
the frankest concord and the heartiest co-operation. Industrialism 
is the body, literature the spirit. In Browning's words: 

Let us not always say 

"Spite of this flesh to-day 

I strove, made head, gained ground upon the whole!" 

As the bird wings and sings, 

Let us cry, "All good things 

Are ours, nor soul helps flesh more, now, than flesh helps soul." 

At the conclusion of Professor Smith's address, the president 
of the Conference introduced Dr. J. B. Henneman, professor in 
the University of the South, Sewanee, Tenn. The subject of Dr. 
Henneman's paper was "Standards of Admission to Southern 
Colleges." He said: 

J. B. HENNEMAN. 

I trust that I shall be pardoned if I take my subject as the 
occasion for suggesting a line of thought which is related, rather 
than for entering upon a technical discussion which, however im- 



J. B. Hcnneman. 91 

portant for a group of schoolmen, surely would seem too pedantic 
in this presence. 

It is interesting to outline, however briefly, the history of the 
movement for a more formal entrance examination for colleges 
and to connect it with the history of secondary education in the 
Southern states of the Union — a more far-reaching subject than 
many of us, associated with one particular corner and one particular 
pet institution, however honorable, commonly suppose it to be. 
One thing we must recognize clearly at the outset. A movement 
extending over a wide territory and possessing countless ramifica- 
tions is never the result alone of any single man's endeavor and 
single institution's work, however important and necessary the 
work of the individual is in the chain of development and in the 
service of propagandism. It is the concurrent and united work of 
a number of forces operating usually through many channels and 
a long succession of time. 

Starting with the latest expression of this interest, what was 
felt to be the great importance of uniform entrance requirements 
was the primary cause of the organization of the Association of 
Schools and Colleges in the Southern States at the time of the 
Atlanta Exposition in 1895, an association which in its history of 
nine years has done untold good in making clear the distinction 
between school and college work and in crystallizing sentiment on 
this point. This association was the result of a call by one whom 
I am proud to name as my earliest instructor in the classics at 
college, now Chancellor Kirkland of Vanderbilt University, than 
whom no one person has labored more zealously and untiringly in 
the last ten years for the important cause of educational efficiency. 
But he, too, would cordially recognize that there were earnest men 
scattered over the country working earnestly to better conditions 
in their respective localities and institutions. From Virginia to 
Missouri and Texas there have been a number of conscientious 
private and public school and college men, some of them never 
officially connected with any association of schools and colleges, 
personally wrestling with the problems in their immediate section 
and contributing their part to a common educational movement 
extending through many years. 

As a mere illustration which by no means stands alone, I take 
the institution which I have the honor to represent, the University 



g2 The Conference for Education. 

of the South, at Sewanee, Tenn. Sewanee, as a rule, has had 
quite other ideals than the pedagogical one of producing preparatory 
school-teachers in any number and has rather been inclined to 
pursue literary, social, and culture ends for themselves. And yet, 
even if she had wished to, she hasn't been able to keep from exer- 
cising some influence on this movement as on some others. The 
Sewanee Grammar School; St. Matthew's School in Dallas, Texas; 
the San Antonio West Texas MiHtary Academy ; the new military 
school projected for the Arsenal at Columbia, Tenn.; a number 
of schools for young women, particularly in North Carolina, South 
CaroHna and Tennessee ; and the labors of other preparatory school 
workers South and North, have all felt the influence of Sewanee 
training and endeavor. Least of all should I forget the efforts 
made to build up the illiterate mountain white population at her 
very doors — industrially, educationally and spiritually. And be it 
remembered that the late revered chancellor of the University of 
the South, Bishop Dudley of Kentucky, was one of the original 
members and organizers of the Conference for Education in the 
South, and was always interested in the educational and spiritual 
welfare of the negroes ; and a Sewanee graduate is the efficient and 
indefatigable secretary of the Southern Education Board, Mr. 
Edgar Gardner Murphy. 

Similar lists could easily be made connected with other insti- 
tions, so general has this movement been. I am tempted to take 
one other illustration, a small colonial college in Virginia, Hampden- 
Sidney, which I had the honor to be connected with in my first 
professorship. This excellent example of the small college Umiting 
itself to genuine college work, and which has never belonged to any 
association outside of its state, so far as I know, has for one hundred 
and thirty years done its good work quietly, has turned out men 
who have become university chancellors, college presidents, col- 
lege professors, principals and teachers of schools, beyond number — 
I recall the first Chancellor of Vanderbilt University, Dr. Garland ; 
President Dabney of the University of Tennessee ; President Denny 
of Washington and Lee; Chairmen Venable and Thornton of the 
University of Virginia, etc., etc. — and has to-day a body of alumni 
at the head of flourishing schools whose main object is to prepare 
boys for college, from Washington, D. C, to St. Louis, Mo. Also 



J. B. Henneman. 93 

the Randolph-Macon system of schools and colleges in Virginia is 
well known. 

The work in the Southern states of the upper Mississippi Valley- 
had received special impetus ten years before the organization of 
the Southern Association of Schools and Colleges through the labors 
of another whom I honor as a former teacher while I was a student 
at Woffard College, in South Carolina. In the autumn of 1884, 
Prof. Charles Foster Smith, then also Professor at Vanderbilt 
University, published his essay on "The Colleges and Schools in the 
South," in The Atlantic Monthly. The immediate result of Pro- 
fessor Smith's personal efforts was the rise of a number of excellent 
preparatory schools in Tennessee and the Middle South, a move- 
ment still continuing. From that day, beginning with Professor 
Smith's initiative, to this, Vanderbilt University has been notably 
fortunate in possessing a large number of strong preparatory schools 
as "feeders," and has been as consistent in the rigidity and strength 
of her entrance requirements. 

In the Atlantic essay Professor Smith not only spoke cordially 
of, but emphasized the preparatory work, even then organized and 
splendidly exemplified in Virginia. For in the momentous twenty 
years back even of Professor Smith's essay, the trying twenty 
years of internal disturbance and reconstruction, from 1865 to 
1885, it ought not to be overlooked now, and certainly was not by 
Professor Smith then, that the system of preparatory school educa- 
tion in the South, fitting for higher college and university work, 
was almost wholly in the hands of Virginia-trained men — trained 
oftenest at the University of Virginia, but also frequently at other 
Virginia institutions. It is hardly too much to say that during 
these twenty suffering years the traditions of sound preparatory 
training were not merely kept alive but never more emphasized 
than by the ideals and labors of such men as Gildersleeve, Price, 
Wheeler, Venable, Peters, Mallett, Francis H. Smith, Noah K. 
Davis, and others at the University of Virginia, seconded by famous 
preparatory schools like Gordon McCabe's in Petersburg, Black- 
ford's at the Episcopal High School near Alexandria; Abbott's at 
Bellevue; Col. Jones's at Hanover Court-house, etc. 

This system of training men and sending them out over the 
country to do sound preparatory work has continued from that 
day to this, as the " University Schools" (due to the direct initiative 



94 The Conference for Education. 

of the faculty of the University of Virginia), scattered in every state 
of the South, bear witness. Doing always splendid work and giving 
continually a great impetus to the founding of sound and strong 
preparatory schools, it is possibly unfortunate, as a mere co-or- 
dinating system, that, owing to the absence of "college classes," 
the University of Virginia has somewhat confused what was long 
her own special vogue, by dispensing with the formal entrance 
examinations even for Virginia students; although by reason of 
traditions and well-known standards, the results actually obtained 
are by no means chaotic, as might theoretically be supposed. Also 
it must not be forgotten that there were then historic schools like 
Bingham's and Horner's in North Carolina and Dr. Turner Porter's 
in Charleston, S. C. ; and the Webbs of Tennessee, like two of the 
three founders of Sewanee, and like Presidents Alderman and 
Mclver, belonging to a later generation, were alumni of the Univer- 
sity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. And other institutions in 
other parts of the South have sent out efficient workers. 

Again, I should do wrong did I not emphasize the remarkable 
growth and increased efficiency in the best public high schools of 
the South in the last two decades, and the interest state universi- 
ties like those of Missouri, Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee and North 
Carolina have taken in developing these schools. Though the 
public schools proved ruinous to many private and classical schools, 
without at first substituting anything so good, this should be only 
a temporary phase, and we may take heart. To those inclined to 
decry the work of the public schools I can but recall the words of 
President Eliot of Harvard, borne out thoroughly by my own ex-, 
perience of seven years at the University of Tennessee, where per- 
haps the majority of the students came from the public schools. 
President Eliot has declared that the graduates of the public schools 
over the country average fully as high in every particular at Har- 
vard as those who enter from the private schools. The same 
eminent authority, in an address given last winter in Philadelphia, 
is the source of the statement that the city of St. Louis has the 
best public-school system in the United States. This is not so far 
from our own special territory as to be devoid of interest and of 
self-application. 

As one who graduated nearly twenty years ago and has been 
a close observer and a conscious participator in this movement. 



/. B. Hcnncrnan. ,9| 

and in this work in three different states — in South Carolina, Vir- 
ginia, and Tennessee, two renowned for their historic traditions 
and the number of educators they have furnished to the nation, 
and two for their active educational interest — also as one who has 
been so fortunate as to have former pupils engaged in this prepara- 
tory work in every state from Virginia to Texas, I cheerfully pay 
these personal tributes. 

The general principles of entrance examinations to colleges 
I outline in the briefest manner, as it is needless to enter here upon 
the details. In results, the ideals are that students shall obtain a 
certain mental development and intellectual training in the school 
before undertaking college work. Further, that this added college 
training is highly desirable and valuable both for further develop- 
ing latent powers in the growing man and for purposes of a real 
culture, before the man, now at least twenty-one, and frequently 
more, enters upon graduate and professional work. For it is 
important that these three grades in our educational system — 
preparatory school, college, and graduate or professional — should 
be kept clear and distinct. 

What shall the school-boy be prepared on in order to enter 
upon this intermediate college work which in turn shall develop and 
broaden him and give him a sound basis for a better culture and 
for entrance upon professional study? Such a school-boy is care- 
fully prepared in at least four studies, and in favorable cases in 
five; for when he enters college he immediately takes up higher 
work certainly in four branches, and may either begin work in a 
fifth, or, if well prepared, he may also do higher work in that fifth. 
What shall these studies be? By a general consensus of opinion: 
English and mathematics, of course ; two foreign languages (whether 
ancient or modern, though, in any culture course surely one ought 
to be Latin) ; and finally, either history or science. When only 
four subjects are given in the schools, it is usually the languages 
that suffer, though the earnest teacher seeks to get the requisite 
amount of work and training by additional demands in mathe- 
matics or science or other subject. For example, if both languages 
taught are modem, i. e., if neither Latin nor Greek is studied, then 
both history and science, in addition to French and German — 
and English, of course — or greater amounts of some three subjects 
are regarded as supplying the needed quantum of study and training^ 



96 The Conference for Education. 

Of course what the schools teach and prepare for must depend 
on the demands made by the several colleges. All agree that the 
minimum work in the schools, even for scientific and technological 
institutes, ought to be English, mathematics and history. If 
the student is looking forward to technological training there 
would best be included enough scientific preparation to give the 
needed bent and aptitude. But for the culture A. B. course, 
Latin is necessarily added. Whether all, or only a part of Greek, 
should be substituted by the modern languages, is an old subject 
for discussion, and I do not wish to call it up here. But I was 
interested in observing this past winter that the University of 
Pennsylvania, an institution commonly and wrongly thought of 
abroad primarily as given over to the scientific spirit, still demands 
Greek upon entrance and a year's work in Greek in college for its 
A. B. degree. Of course, there is a B. Sc. degree at this same insti- 
tution; but, at least the historic tradition of the A. B. degree is 
sustained. Some institutions, following in the wake of Cornell, 
are giving only the A. B. degree to all college graduates, having 
done away with the B. Sc. title altogether. But a discussion of 
this would lead us too far astray, and I must not trespass longer 
on your time. 

In conclusion, what does this system of correlation and co- 
ordination in school, college and university work mean? What 
is the significance of a special and distinct and uniform recognized 
requirement for entrance into our colleges? It means in itself 
system, organization, concerted agreement, among a large number 
of institutions over a wide territory, a clear demarcation between 
the proper phases of school work, college work, and professional 
work. But more than that. It means the union of our Southern 
parts of the United States with the rest of the country from Massa- 
chusetts to California. Indeed, since we have just witnessed the 
spectacle of examinations in every state and province for the 
Rhodes scholarship at Oxford, it means a closer uniformity among 
the nations of the English-speaking peoples. And in its ultimate 
relations, it means a closer association with the rest of the educated, 
civilized world. 

This is no small gain. It means casting aside the bonds of 
separateness, of provinciality, almost inevitable from our great 
distances and natural isolation. Should we live in one corner with- 



/. B. Hcnneman. 97 

out noting what is done elsewhere? It generates a feehng that we 
are a conscious working part of the civihzed world, and distinctly 
of our part of it, the American nation. We feel that we are con- 
tributing to the national work and to our national destiny. A 
school like the Webbs at Bellbuckle, Tenn., if I may take a 
personal illustration, is training students for every part of the 
country, East, North and South, as well as for nearer institutions 
in Tennessee and the adjacent states. I ask frankly, is not such a 
school a national enterprise? 

I draw another illustration from four higher institutions of 
learning in Tennessee that I happen to know most intimately, 
and I regard them as typical of a far-reaching movement. I refer 
to the State University at Knoxville, the Peabody Normal College 
and Vanderbilt University at Nashville, and the University of the 
South at SeWanee. These are first of all widely representative. 
In the faculty of each of them are men from the North and from 
the South, from the East and from the West, trained in various 
parts of our country at home and some abroad. Again, the students 
in the several departments come by no means from one locality, 
but represent in birth and training and residence a large number 
of states and differing environments. At Sewanee there are usually ' 
some thirty of the forty-four states represented, and this is more 
or less true of her sister institutions. In a class of twenty, an in- 
structor may look for a dozen or more states to be represented. 
Then there must be reckoned the Wide area of country to which 
the future will inevitably call these workers. There is thus the 
consciousness of the representative character in both faculty and 
student body, the consciousness of a broader, higher and better 
national citizenship. Then there is added to this the conscious- 
ness of high ideals and faith in the ultimate high destiny of the 
particular work and institution. 

It is this conscious work for a conscious end that I wish to 
emphasize. High-school men, both private and public, and the 
college men of the South feel that they are conscious and intelli- 
gent parts of a wide system, a national system, if you please, and 
more potent than banks and factories and railways, and even 
economic reasons — and I am not foolish enough to minimize or 
despise these. The intelligent education of this country is doing 
most to unite and unify and strengthen it, to make it one and in 



98 The Conference of Education 

separable, more intelligent and more powerful for all good ends. 
Such a conscious uniform system, that can still give enough 
individual elasticity in the treatment of details, is doing most for 
its immediate section and locality, as it is best serving the nation 
at large. It is giving the best and the most intelligent according 
to its conditions, and yet looks forward to the greater educational 
world beyond. Our graduates and former pupils more and more 
are scattered everywhere over the world and are coming in compe- 
tition with the most varied. We wish them to find themselves 
easily in sympathy and relation with the best. For there can only 
be one best — the standard, the ideal, to be seen clearly and labored 
for conscientiously — the cause of a higher culture and the cause of 
a clearer truth. 

Mr. Walter H. Page, of North Carolina, editor of the World's 
Work, New York City, was next introduced. Mr. Page spoke on 
"The Unfulfilled Ambition of the South." His address follows: 

WALTER H. PAGE. 

There is a class of men in the Southern States who have a 
stronger love of their country — I had almost said — than other 
men anywhere feel. They are bound closely together by an ardent 
patriotism which is the inheritance of every Southerner, especially 
if his traditions run back to the large-minded period when Southern 
men built the spacious house of our liberties. And every such man 
would give his work if he knew how — he would give his life, if need 
be — to restore the thought, the character, and the influence of the 
South to the commanding position that they held a hundred years 
ago. 

It is to the Southern men of this mettle that I wish to speak ;. 
and, if the other distinguished persons in this audience will pardon 
me, I shall speak directly to them and to them only. 

I address those, then, who answer to this description of a 
Southern gentleman — a man who is frank and fearless, generous 
to his fellows, a proud man with an instinct for leadership; the 
weaker the man is with whom he has to do, the more scrupulous 
is his justice; the weaker the woman is with whom he has to do, 
the more scrupulous his honor. 

And I speak to you in the intimate intonations of our unful- 



Walter H. Page. 99 

filled ambition. For we have an unfulfilled ambition that has given 
a deep seriousness to our lives. Of course, I do not speak of per- 
sonal disappointments. Personal disappointments, if we have 
suffered them, are of too little importance seriously to affect the 
lives of men of our traditions or of our temper. He is a small man, 
indeed, whose mere personal fortunes or misfortunes change his 
relations to his fellow man or to his country. We were born far 
too large for that. And I think we were born too large, also, for 
mere personal ambitions. The desire to achieve something merely 
for one's own glory — that, too, is the mark of small men who do 
not feel sure of their station or of their relations to their fellow 
men or to their country. We claim a larger ambition and a higher 
patriotism than this. What I speak of is an unfulfilled ambition 
for our country — an ambition for these States and these people as 
a part of the Union. The ambition that men felt in the time of 
Washington, of Jefferson, of Marshall — this is what I mean. They 
and their fellows wrought out their high wish. Our wish, equally 
high, we have not wrought out; and that is our sorrow How has 
the South fallen in the life, in the thought, in the conduct of the 
republic, since their time? If we have not been disinherited, we 
are yet almost strangers in the house of our fathers. Why are we 
not, why may we not become, leaders in our country's progress? 
We do not believe that we are incapable. We come of good stock. 
Nor have we lost our ambition. 

Lost our ambition? Let me recall a memory. I had a friend, 
when we were just coming into active life, a Georgian of gentle 
breeding and of high spirit, ardent and eloquent. There are other 
men here who knew him and loved him, for he has now long been 
dead. The last sad Christmas of his life I went a long journey to 
see him. One evening at sunset he looked out the window over 
the gullied fields (it was an endless waste of mistilled land), and 
he said sadly: "I love the old red hills, and we must show that 
men live on them yet." A hint of death was already in his eyes, 
but an unbounded patriotism shone there, too. He wrote me a 
little later: "I do not mind dying, but I hoped to do something 
for the South before I went." And he never wrote again. Our 
ambition is as great as his was, and — let us hope — as unselfish. 
But even yet it is an unfulfilled ambition. 

Now, I shall trv to go straight to the heart of this matter. 



LofC. 



100 



The Conference for Education. 



which concerns us more than anything else in the world; and I 
shall talk, man to man, in a mood that has no hesitation and no 
fear — the mood of close kinship in a high hope. We are men, and 
we can face facts as bravely as we have faced misfortune. We are 
not afraid of any truth. 

What ails us, then, or what ails the time we live in? 

The republic, of which we are a part, has in our day swung 
into a wider orbit than any other country. It is a larger time, a 
wider horizon, than American citizens ever before saw. What has 
been the secret of this progress ? 

The secret of the unrivaled progress of the United States — 
the secret of the swift forward movement in our time that puts 
all preceding social advancement to shame — is the training of the 
mass of the people. So simple is this fact that many a man misses 
its profound meaning. Sometimes men miss its meaning because 
they use words that confuse them. "Education," is one such 
confusing word. To "educate" the people means one thing to 
one man and another to another. To most persons it smells of 
books only. I have several times had the depressing misfortune 
to be caught at a real educational meeting (and I dare say you 
have, too) ; and I have been reminded by what I heard of blind 
little men scrambling in a fog for a path that was not there. Then 
I have looked outdoors and seen the roses blooming and thought 
of the children that cannot bloom. Let us not use words, then, 
about which men deliver dissertations. Let us call it plain "train- 
ing," for training is the thing that has made the world a new world, 
that has vindicated democracy, that has opened the door for op- 
portunities as fast as we can seize them — opportunities not only 
industrial and diplomatic, but intellectual and moral also. 

I lately took a journey from Boston to St. Louis. Across 
that row of states one may see everywhere workshops that are 
schools and schools that are workshops, the people all doing some 
economic service and training the young. The earnestness of 
.academic life, the hum of industry, the cleanness of agriculture — 
from the lecture-rooms of Harvard College to the power-room at 
the World's Fair where an engine turns 10,000 horse-power as 
smoothly as a top sleeps on a polished plate — these are our country- 
men (and these are their ways) who have already taken a mortgage 
on the future of the world, for they are its masters. 



Walter H. Page. loi 

Let us see what right training is and how it works. 

First — does training pay the individual? To reduce the ques- 
tion to its simplest terms, let us first consider the common untrained 
laborer in the South, the man at the very bottom. I asked the 
heads of several good schools for negro men and women to tell 
me the earning power of particular persons before they were trained 
and after. Here is the answer from Tuskegee: 

Before training, a colored lad can earn in Alabama from 
60 to 80 cents a day ; after training at any useful kind of work, 
from $2.50 to $4.00 a day. 

These instances, among others, are sent to me by the principal 
of the Slater School for Negroes at Winston N. C: 

John Smith's untrained earning capacity was $15 amonth. 
Trained at this school as a builder, he now earns $50 a month. 

J. B. Christian earned $8 a month. As a teacher he now 
earns $35. 

Lizzie Crittenden earned $5 a month. As a nurse, she 
now earns $25. 

Eliza Hand earned $6 a month. As a dressmaker she 
now earns $35. 

The principal of Hampton Institute, in Virginia, gives these 
cases: 

L. R. Henderson as a bricklayer earns $4 a day. He 
works side by side with white men and has no trouble with 
them. 

Charles Harvey earns from $2.75 to $3.50 a day as a 
carpenter. 

A recital of such cases might be made for a whole evening 
from any part of the South. 

Now, in the face of such facts, any able-minded negro who 
does not train himself is a fool ; there is a greater economic difference 
between an income of 70 cents and $2.50 a day than there is between 
$3000 a year and $30,000. 

But if a negro be a fool not to train himself, what shall be 
said of a white man? He, too, is a fool, with a punitive adjective 
for emphasis. I have asked the same question of many schools 
for whites. I will quote but one answer: 



I02 The Conference for Education. 

The president of the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, at Auburn, 
has written me as follows: 

I could write you what seems to me a romance as to the 
process of transmuting the brains of country boys into live 
commercial assets. We have graduated from Auburn since 
1872, when the cohege was founded, about seven hundred and 
fifty young men. Most of these have been poor boys in the 
strictest sense of the word, and to-day they are earning an 
average of over eight hundred dollars a year. Some are get- 
ting salaries of two thousand, some three thousand, and one 
exceptional fellow ten thousand. Now, the average wages of 
these boys, had they not attended this institution, but remained 
on the farm, wotild have been about a hundred and fifty dollars 
a year, which is the full estimate of the earning capacity of a 
plain Alabama farm laborer. Their present average earning, 
\ of eight hundred dollars, includes of course the salaries of 

young men who have just left college, but who in a few years 
will rise to something better. The average will, therefore, soon 
be higher. 

Now capitalize this eight hundred dollars yearly income 
at five per cent., and we have the sum of sixteen thousand dol- 
lars, which expresses the cash value of the young man's edu- 
cated brain. This enormous increase in his standard of life and 
in productive capacity is gained at this institution at an average 
cost of two hundred dollars a year, or eight hundred dollars for 
the four years. 

I cite you a few concrete examples: 

G. N. Mitcham took with us his B. S. and M. S. degrees in 
1897 and 1898, and in five years after leaving college, without 
any outside influence, had worked into a position in which he 
directed ten other civil engineers, and which paid a salary of 
$2400. 

W. D. Taylor, 1881, a young man raised on a farm in 
Montgomery County in the Black Belt, took our course in civil 
engineering, has become a leader of national reputation in his 
profession, constructing a noted bridge for the Chicago and 
Alton Railway across the Missouri River, and now earns a salary 
of about four thousand dollars as professor of railway engi- 
neering in the University of Wisconsin. 

J. M. Reid, of the same class and the same course, was 
the son of a section boss on an Alabama RailwaJ^ He, too, is 
a celebrated engineer, having been employed by a Portuguese 
company in Africa. In addition to his salary he was paid by 
the company a bonus of ten thousand dollars for certain changes 
he sviggested which effected immense saving in the cost of con- 
struction. 



Walter H. Page. 103 

E. N. Brown, of the same class and course, was from a 
Black Belt county just below us, the son of an intelligent but 
poor gentleman in said county. Young Brown is now general 
manager of the Mexican National System of Railways, with a 
salary of ten thousand dollars per year. 

This list might be prolonged indefinitely. 

Looked at from the point of view of the individual, it is clear, 
then, that it pays to be trained. But how is it, looked at from 
the point of view of the whole community? If I want a man to 
shovel dirt, perhaps I do not need a trained man. I want a man 
for 70 cents a day, not for $2.50. If everybody in a community 
be trained, who will shovel the dirt and chop the wood and draw 
the water? Does not every community require a large number 
of untrained, low-priced men? 

No! 

That is the fatal doctrine that our fathers fell into and lost 
industrial leadership thereby. It is this doctrine that has cost 
the Southern States a hundred years of progress, for this is nothing 
but a sequel of slavery. If every man in the community were 
trained you could have the dirt shoveled more cheaply than now. 
A trained man would drive his scoop to your dirt, attach it to an 
electric wire and shovel the dirt more accurately, more quickly, 
more cheaply, than any negro in Alabama can do it. That sort of 
activity is happening all over the industrial world. Men once 
pegged shoes by hand. They are pegged much more cheaply by 
machinery. Whole towns are given to shoe-making; and a man 
who invented shoe-pegging machinery lately died and left a great 
legacy to one of our universities. Men once shoveled iron ore with 
spades. On Lake Superior ore is now hfted from the earth by 
machinery and it is not once moved by the muscle-power of man 
till it becomes steel rails and they are laid on the road-bed. It is 
precisely this kind of trained activity that has enabled the United 
States to take the lead in the industrial world. Here is the whole 
secret of it — training from the very bottom up. 

To show the sheer financial difference between an untrained 
and a better trained community, compare North Carolina and 
Iowa. They are both agricultural states. They have approxi- 
mately the same area and the same population. They have ap- 
proximately the same number of farmers Yet the value of the 



I04 The Conference for Educatton. 

farm products of Iowa is more than four times the value of the 
farm products of North Carolina ; and the value of the farm property- 
is eight times as great. A farmer makes more than four times as 
much in Iowa as he does in North Carolina; and a farm-hand re- 
ceives twice as much. The difference is not so much a difference 
in soil as it is a difference in men. Most of the farm work in North 
Carolina is done by untrained negroes. It is practically all done 
in Iowa by intelligent and trained white men. It is the difference 
between a clodhopper and a trained man. And yet so rich is our 
land that even the clodhopper is pretty well off. 

Economic civilization moves forward only as the whole mass 
of activity becomes more efficient. Are you a lawyer? Your dirt 
shoveler will never pay you a large fee; but a trained man who 
works machinery may. Are you a physician? The same is true. 
Are you a merchant ? Your untrained dirt-shoveler can never buy 
much from you with his 70 cents a day. But a man who earns $4 
a day is worth having as a customer. Are you a railroad? Your 
untrained man has little money to travel and nothing to haul. 
Are you a cotton mill? Your untrained man or woman can't buy 
much cloth on low wages. Whatever you are, you fare better if 
all men about you are trained, and you fare well in proportion to 
the number that are trained. 

This, then, is the central thought of the whole matter. It 
pays an individual to be trained, and it not only pays a community, 
but it is absolutely necessary for a community that all the people 
be trained. And this simple and obvious truth leads far. 

It brings a new conception of society. A satisfactory society 
in our modern democracy cannot be made up of "educated" men 
and "uneducated" men. So long as education is regarded as a 
privilege and not as a right and a universal necessity, the com- 
munity will stand still in activity, in thought, in character. The 
proper standard to judge men by is an economic standard, not 
an academic one. This economic standard changes our whole 
view of life, and makes our old system of social thought face an- 
other way. 

Now it is this economic structure and not the privileged 
structure of society in the United States — as far as it has yet been 
worked out — that has given our country its great place in the 
world. And it is this economic and non-privileged structure of 



Walter H. Page. 105 

society that has given the Northern and the Western States the 
lead of the Southern States. 

The idea which Southern men inherited was that it made no 
particular matter about the training of the mass of men, provided 
we properly trained some men as leaders. Although it is easy to 
understand the advantage of training to an individual, we are just 
beginning to see that it is necessary also to a community that all 
men should be trained. Our great task lies right here — to persuade 
the community that it is bound to train every child for the com- 
munity's own sake. 

Let us go on without flinching and see where this leads us. 
We run now squarely into the doctrine of universal training at 
the community's expense (compulsory, if need be), which is neces- 
sary in a democracy. There is no escape from it. We may ob- 
scure the question as we please. We may befog it with big words. 
We may drag it into political discussion. We may hatch big 
theories to cackle it down. We may smear it over with charity. 
We may impoverish the state because we are afraid of pauperizing 
men who are already so lean that they can't distinguish hunger 
from backache. But there it stands — a stark economic fact — the 
state must train every child at the public expense; and it must 
train him to usefulness. And an economic fact is also a moral 
fact. 

And the right training of all the people would come pretty 
near to ending all our troubles — to removing our difficulties, econ- 
omic, political and ethnological. For instance, you have seldom 
known a well-trained white man and a well-trained negro in 
Alabama — both men of economic worth — to have a difficulty 
because one is white and the other is black, or for any other reason ; 
and you will seldom know such cases. But one untrained worth- 
less white man or one untrained worthless negro may cause trouble 
throughout a whole county. For this reason it is important to 
train the child of every hill-billy, of every politician, of every negro 
in Alabama. In every case it is an economic reason, not a merely 
personal reason, not a race reason, not a class reason. In an 
ideal economic state, if we were to construct it as ruthlessly as 
Plato constructed his ideal Republic, we should kill every un- 
trained man; for he is in the way. He is a burden, and he brings 
down the level of the economic efficiency of the whole community. 



io6 The Conference for Education. 

Clear thinking brings us home to this truth. A knowledge 
of our own history brings us home to the same truth. The one 
great structural error made in our past was an economic error. 
We shall correct it only by an economic correction. I said in the 
beginning that we are a patriotic people. Sound economic action 
is patriotic action always. 

And there is another quality that is strong in us. We love 
the land that we were born to — literally the land — this ground, 
this soil, this earth. Our fathers were land-hungry and land-lov- 
ing, and our impulses answer to their habits. Those of us that 
do not till the earth still keep a love of it. Even those of us whose 
trades have buried us in great cities feel exiled if we do not come 
at short intervals and touch this soil. The call of the earth compels 
us. This is always our old home. And the odors of a Southern 
springtime stir deep emotions in us. 

We love the land. Then, my brothers, we owe it a debt that 
we cannot pay devoutly enough. If it speaks a deep meaning to 
us, how it cries out to us for better culture! Its emotional appeal 
puts on us economic duty — a solemn, filial duty. We may look 
about us in any direction and see — 

Spring kneeling on the sod, 
Lifting neglected acres up to God. 

For our sins to our land, let us humbly pray: 

O Land, the giver of plenty ; sustain us yet, untrained workers. 

O Sunny Land, clother of the world, sustain us yet, untrained workers. 

O Land, our sunny home ; stistain us yet, untrained workers , 

O fertile, sunny, and plenteous country, provider, clother, home ; 

sustain us yet, untrained workers. 
We will worship thee with better labor, 
Renew the riches of thy soil with knowledge, 
Make green thy hills, thy lowlands white with cotton, 
J Preserve the forest mantle of thy mountains. 

Keep clean thy streams for constant flowing. 
Teach thy boundless beauties to our children, 
Till we lie down in silence in thy bosom. 
Amen. 

But it is not enough to regard the subject from a bald economic 
view only. We have other reasons for training all the people than 
the sheer profit of it, though that is reason enough. 



Walter H. Page. 107 

There is one high reason that includes all others. It is neces- 
sary for our freedom of opinion that all the people be trained. It 
was for freedom of opinion that our ancestors built the wide arch 
of the ranged Union. Then a tyranny of thought followed the 
great economic error. 

We all know that freedom of thought is abridged in many 
parts of the South. But I will give you one instance of its suppres- 
sion. I sat one night a few years ago in the house of the president 
of one of our old educational institutions. He and several mem- 
bers of his faculty were discussing the very subject that I am dis- 
cussing now — the necessity of a universal compulsory training of 
every child in the state. "Make a negro go to school and tax 
us for it?" one man asked. Yes; we all agreed that this was an 
economic necessity. Then the president smiled and remarked that 
if he were to express this opinion baldly in public, he would lose 
his place. 

"Do your trustees differ with you?" I asked. 

"No, many of them at least agree with me. But they would 
be afraid of public opinion. The principal newspaper here would 
hound them." 

You would have supposed that the editor was master of 
thought there. But the editor held the same opinion that we all 
held. He had told me so. He, too, was afraid of public opinion; 
and he would not have written his own convictions in his paper. 

Public opinion, therefore, was not the thought of educated 
men in that community, but the blind push of untrained men. 
And these thoughtful men were not free because of the mass of 
unthinking men about them. Always an untrained mob will con- 
trol thought if the people be not trained. In an untrained de- 
mocracy low minds will lead ; and an organized howl will lift dema- 
gogues to power. 

This is the reason why other parts of the republic have taken 
intellectual leadership from us. This is the reason that our kins- 
men across the sea and our kinsmen across the Potomac regard 
us as a problem. Let us face this fact frankly. 

We have suffered too long because the way to freedom of 
opinion was not clear. But it is clear now. It is the very way 
that Jefferson himself, in his own free thought, pointed out — by 
the training of all the people. In this way the South will again 



io8 The Conference for Education. 

come to its own, and public opinion here will get the full service 
of our best minds and most generous natures. 

It seems a hard lot that we of all men should have suffered 
an eclipse of free thought. Our forefathers supposed that they 
had made this blessing secure for all time. It was Jefferson's great 
dream. Yet we, who ought to have been born into the full blaze of 
intellectual liberty, are the only English-speaking men to whom 
it is now denied. 

But a change is coming — faster than most men know except 
those of us who live away from the old home and frequently come 
back to it. The truth is, the South is now the land of rapid change. 
Men often speak of it as if it were an old land — as a small part of 
it is. They speak of it as if it were settled by a population that 
had firmly fixed methods of thought and unyielding institutions. 

What is the South? What is Alabama, for instance? Old 
men are still living who came here by wagons, to a wilderness. 
This busy city has been wholly built within my easy memory. 
There are to-day only 35 persons per square mile in this state. If 
it were as densely settled as the Netherlands there would be as 
many persons in Alabama as there are now in twelve Southern 
states — all the old slave states — ^Virginia, North Carolina, South 
CaroHna, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, 
Tennessee and the border States of Kentucky and Maryland to 
boot. If every acre of land in Alabama were as profitably culti- 
vated as the island of Jersey is, its food products would feed about 
half the people in the United States. By a fair economic measure, 
Alabama is yet hardly more than a wilderness. Man is just begin- 
ning to make a permanent impress on it. 

And the changes are not only physical. There are changes in 
thought. The day before yesterday (as we measure the life of a 
nation) pioneers were coming here. Yesterday (as we measure the 
life of a nation) the sons of these pioneers gathered at your capital 
and sought to make an end of a long trouble by setting up a new 
government. That was only yesterday. But to-day men here 
have a different mind about that enterprise. Everything here, I 
say, is rapidly changing — occupations, methods, thought. Noth- 
ing is fixed. We have, in fact, a less developed land and people 
than any other men of our race in all their far-flung lines of settle- 



Walter H. Page. ^ 109 

ment and industry. And a few strong men now may make their 
impress on the land and on the people for all time to come. 

For this reason we cannot, in spite of our disinheritance, regard 
ourselves as unfortunate. We are, in fact, if we have the mettle 
for a great task, the most fortunate of men. Those that sit in soft 
places and discuss academic propositions (and mistake self-indul- 
gence in criticism for the intellectual life) are welcome to their ease. 
We would not swap birthrights with them. If we have a rough 
task, it is a high task. While we are doing it, we shall have the joy 
of constructive activity. We look forward to a golden age that we 
may surely help to bring, not back to one that never was. And 
thought is every year becoming freer — on great public subjects and 
even in the churches. 

Nor is this all. A time is coming, men of the South, and it is 
coming before we die, when other and even graver economic 
problems will press on our national life for solution. They press 
already. They are new problems and no government has yet met 
them. When we grapple with them in earnest, we shall need 
leadership of a quality that is got only from a hardly won victory. 
The men who have passed resolutely through one struggle for 
economic truth and free opinion will have had the best training for 
other struggles for other economic truths and for free opinion, 
fettered then in some other way. A democracy in its days of trial 
calls its leaders from those who struggled last. When we win this 
battle here — over ourselves and over inherited error — the nation 
may have need of you. Let us rouse us, then, and proclaim this 
declaration : 

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary 
for a generation of men to dissolve the hereditary bands that 
have connected them with an economic error and to assume 
among the workers of the world an independent and equal station, 
to which their intellectual ability and their economic capacity 
entitle them, a decent regard for the opinions of the laggard re- 
quires that they should declare the purpose which impels them 
to this emancipation 

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men 
should have equality of opportunity ; that we are endowed by 
our institutions with inalienable rights; and that among these 
are free training and free opinion. 

We, therefore, the descendants of men who meant to es- 
tablish free thought for us when they laid the foundations of 



no The Conference for Education, 

our liberties, pointing to the benefits of free opinion among 
English-speaking men throughout the world, do in the name 
and for the development of the good people of these states, 
solemnly publish and declare that free training and free opinion 
of right ought to be theirs. 

And for the support of this declaration we mutuauy 
pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred 
honor. 

At the conclusion of Mr. Page's address the Conference ad- 
journed until the following morning at ten o'clock. 



THIRD DAY, THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 1904. 



MORNING SESSION. 

The Conference was called to order shortly after lo a. m., by 
the president, Mr. Robert C. Ogden. Mr. Ogden said: 

ROBERT C. OGDEN. 

We have, this morning, a little formal business to transact. 
Before calling upon the chairman of the Executive Committee for 
a report from this committee I desire to say a few things concern- 
ing the Conference. The Conference, as has often been explained, 
is a very loose organization. There is, I might say, some considera- 
ble current expense connected with its meetings. The government 
requires us to pay postage on everything we send through the mails; 
we have large printing bills; and somehow or other these accounts 
manage to get paid. If the printing is needed, we pick up a fairy 
godfather somewhere. The Conference has been adopted over and 
over again and it has more than forefathers, although it is only 
very young. But it has more forefathers than the Hebrews had. 
Now we ought to have a more compact organization. 

I shall occupy your time only for a moment on this matter, 
but it comes home to me with a great deal of force. This Con- 
ference, as I endeavored to demonstrate in a few remarks I was 
privileged to make at the opening of the Conference, has a right 
to live — not only has a right to live, but it ought to live. In a short 
life of seven years, in a period of activity of only four years, it has 
demonstrated beyond question that it has an influence, that while 
it is spiritual and intellectual, rather than material, yet it is exer- 
cising a force for good in many different directions, and we are sure 
that out of the forces of this Conference there has come a serious 
and inspiring literature, and that through the meeting of per- 
sons from different parts of the country the best South and the 
best North and East are coming into closer relationship than ever 

(III) 



112 The Conference for Education. 

before. We know that these things are going on, and we know also, 
it may be said as a matter of actual fact, that perhaps the largest 
influence for good of this Conference has been the bringing together 
of strong thoughtful-minded men and women of the South in an 
acquaintanceship and sympathetic union for work, such as did not 
exist before the Conference. Now for all of these reasons and for 
many others it has a right to live, but it is too loose an organic 
structure, its organization is not sufficiently compact. 

I wish to leave just this suggestion with you, and I wish also 
to make the suggestion to those whom you will appoint as the 
officers of your Conference for the year to come, in the hope that 
between now and the time that the next Conference meets some- 
thing will be done, in order that the Conference may lead a strong 
organic, progressive life that shall be quite independent of any 
particular person anywhere. 

We are now prepared to hear the report of the Executive Com- 
mittee, from Mr. B. B. Valentine, of Richmond, Va., chairman. 

MR. B. B. VALENTINE, 

The report of the Executive Committee is very short. 

The Executive Committee of the Southern Educational Con- 
ference respectfully submits the following report for the considera- 
tion of the Conference : 

We make the following nominations for general officers of the 
Conference : 

For President, Mr. Robert C. Ogden, 784 Broadway, New York 
City; for Vice-President, Mr. Edgar Gardner Murphy, of Mont- 
gomery, Ala. ; for Secretary, Dr. B. J. Baldwin, of Montgomery, Ala. ; 
for Treasurer, Mr. William H. Blair, of Winston-Salem, N. C. 

For the Executive Committee of the Conference we nominate: 

Mr. B. B. Valentine, South Third Stfeet, Richmond, Va.; 
Dr. Robert B. Fulton, Chancellor of the University of Mississippi, 
Oxford, Miss.; the Hon. John B. Knox, Anniston, Ala.; Mr. G. P. 
Glenn, Superintendent of Schools, Jacksonville, Fla. ; Mr. B. C. 
Caldwell, President of the State Normal School, Natchitoches, La. ; 
Mr. C. B. Gibson, Superintendent of Schools, Columbus, Georgia; 
Dr. Richard H.Jesse, President of the University of Missouri, Colum- 
bia, Mo.; Hon. S. A. Mynders, State Superintendent of Education, 



Robert C. Ogden. 113 

Nashville, Tenn.; Mr. Clarence H. Poe, Raleigh, N. C; Dr. D. B* 
Johnson, President of Winthrop College, Rock Hill, S. C; and Dr. 
D. F. Houston, President of the Agricultural and Mechanical Col- 
lege of Texas, College Station, Texas. 

I will say, too, that the Conference has received already several 
invitations for the meeting of 1905, and that these will be considered 
by the Executive Committee as soon as possible. We have received 
a very cordial invitation from Columbia, S. C, one from Chatta- 
nooga, Tenn., one from Natchez, Miss., and one from Spartan- 
burg, S. C. 

The president said: 

The form of action will be upon the acceptance of the report, 
the vote on the election of officers being later. 

The question was put by the president upon the acceptance 
of the report of the Executive Committee. The report was ac- 
cepted. 

Dr. Charles D. Mclver took the chair at this time and put the 
question upon the election of officers: 

Are there any other nominations for officers in addition to 
those presented by the Executive Committee? 

If there are no other nominations shall we vote upon the mo- 
tion as a whole? 

A motion was moved and seconded that the vote be taken 
on the motion as a whole. 

The Chair: 

"It is moved and seconded that all the nominations be voted 
upon at once, there being no other nominations. Those in favor 
of electing those nominated will please say 'Yes,' opposed 'No.'" 

All the persons nominated were thereupon unanimously 
elected. 

MR. ROBERT C. OGDEN, 
President of the Conference. 

Ladies and gentlemen of the Conference, I do not propose to 
detain you with any formal remarks, but I do think one httle ex- 
planation is due to myself. I have been placed at the head of this 
ticket and have been elected by you, and I appreciate very deeply 
all that is implied in the fact that you think us worthy of your 
confidence for another year to serve at the head of this Conference 



114 The Conference for Education. 

of Education in the South, but it is known to very many here that 
I registered a solemn vow that I could not continue in this office any 
longer. I had my own reasons ; some of them are personal. Time 
is flying away, I am no longer young; and then, too, I think that 
rotation in office is a principle that should be observed by every 
organization of this character. But for reasons that have been 
urged upon me I have withdrawn my vow, and have been willing 
to allow my name to stand again, hoping that a kind Providence 
may enable me to serve the Conference better next year than this. 
Just that much, let me say. I am not altogether a weakling; I do 
know my own mind; and I thought when J came here that it was 
clear, absolutely clear, that my services in the office with which I 
have been honored so long should terminate at this Conference. 
Only one who is deficient, however, can never change his mind; 
and sometimes we find the theoretically wrong things may be per- 
haps the practically right things. I trust you will accept my 
explanation. 

The President of the Conference : 

" Local Taxation for Public Education" is the subject of discus- 
sion this morning. The Conference is aware that no single question 
with which we are engaged has a more vital importance than this. 
The first address will be from Mr. H. O. Murfee, of Marion. Ala. 

H. 0. MURFEE. 

I have the honor of opening for your consideration the subject 
of local taxation with a definition of terms and a statement of the 
situation. 

The history of nations and of governments uniformly reveals 
a vital relation between taxation and prosperity. This relation is 
not merely a material connection. It is a relation deep and endur- 
ing between ideas, opinions, beliefs, which nourish national life and 
are themselves the real source of all revenue. It is in this relation 
that I would bespeak your attention to the subject of local taxa- 
tion. 

Taxation is a mode of raising pubhc revenues. "The pubHc 
revenues," according to the founder of the historical school of law, 
"the pubHc revenues are a portion that each subject gives of his 



H. 0. Miirfee. 115 

property in order to secure or enjoy the remainder."* This con- 
ception of pubHc revenues is fundamental to government ; for unless 
a people recognize the relation between their taxes and their wel- 
fare, they will ever regard taxation as tyranny. In the visible 
things of government this relation of taxation to welfare is evident. 
Taxes which support the constable and estabhsh courts are patently 
indispensable to the pubHc good. But it is not so evident that 
taxes for schools also "are a portion that each subject gives of his 
property in order to secure or enjoy the remainder." Certain it is, 
however, that the security of our property and the enjoyment of 
our possessions are conditioned upon the integrity and the intelli- 
gence of our neighbors; and the integrity and the intelligence of 
our neighbors are fruits of education. 

Thus it is that in contributing to the public revenues for educa- 
tion we insure to ourselves the things for which governments are 
instituted — life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 

The mode of raising such pubHc revenues is also a capital 
concern. Not only the amount of revenue raised, but — what is of 
far greater moment — the attitude of the people, is influenced by 
the mode of taxation. In a democratic government the people 
should be invested with the sovereign power of support. And not 
merely the people in general, but the people in particular. Each 
community should be empowered to tax itself for its own improve- 
ment. This is local taxation, and this is local self-government. 
Local self-government has been aptly defined as "that system of 
government under which the greatest number of minds knowing 
the most, and having the fullest opportunities of knowing it, about 
the special matter in hand, and having the greatest interest in its 
well-working, have the management of it, or the control over it."** 
This is the cherished political faith of the South; and this faith 
should shape our pohcies of public instruction. Local taxation for 
schools is the doctrine of democracy in education. This doctrine 
teaches that the people who possess the most intimate knowledge of 
public affairs and who have the most intimate interest in their well- 
being should be entrusted with the power of support and the 
responsibility of control. Denied this power and responsibility, the 
people cease to consider public affairs as their affairs, which demand 

*Montesquieu: Esprit dcs Lois, I. xiii. 

**Toulmin Smith: Local Self-government and Centralizaiton. 



ii6 The Conference for Education. 

their vigilant supervision and loyal support. The government, by 
whatever name it is called, that prevents a people from improving 
their condition savors more of despotism than of democracy. 

The chief virtue of local taxation for schools is the virtue of 
democratic government : it develops the people through their efforts 
to govern themselves. Not the greatest happiness of the greatest 
number, but the most complete development of every citizen — this 
is the blessing of self-government. This blessing is most beneficent 
in the conduct of education. The administration of their schools, 
through local support and local control, is itself a source of en- 
lightenment to a people. The amount of revenue which will accrue 
from local taxation is not the sole consideration; the increase of 
interest and the community of effort on the part of the people for 
the elevation of their schools are vital effects of this mode of raising 
revenue. The amount of revenue raised is a matter of the moment; 
the active interest of the people in the education of their children 
is a matter of all time. Such interest is a source of life unto life, 
and is itself a mighty means of enduring revenue. Local taxation 
for schools yields its richest fruits not in an increased revenue, but 
in the personal interest each citizen acquires for the betterment of 
the schools, in the belief which thus comes to prevail that the schools 
are of the people, for the people, and by the people, and that the. 
people are the repositories of their children's welfare. 

The situation of public education in the South is due to a prac- 
tical repudiation of the doctrine of local self-government. This 
situation presents two capital features. These features are a dearth 
of public revenue and an apathy of public opinion. The dearth of 
public revenue for education in the Southern states appears in the 
recent report of the United States Commissioner of Education, 
For example, in this report we find that the total revenue for schools 
in Massachusetts amounted to $14,192,760; in North Carolina, 
$1,484,921. Massachusetts raised 97.2 per cent, of this revenue 
by local taxation ; in North Carolina local taxation contributed only 
12.5 per cent. These cases are typical: wherever local taxation has 
been employed, it has been a source of copious revenue. The 
dearth of public revenue for education in the Southern states may 
be attributed to the same cause which has operated to produce an 
apathy of pubHc opinion. The state and not the community has 
exercised the power of support and control. The result of this has 



H. 0. Mur]ce. 117 

been not only a meager revenue, but also an indifferent public 
opinion. It is customary to attribute the situation of public educa- 
tion in the South to certain historical causes. Whatever part the 
past may play in shaping present opinion, present opinion is largely 
determined by the nature of things. And it is not in the nature of 
things for a people to entertain a zealous devotion for institutions 
which are not made by their own efforts and maintained by their 
own labors. Historical speculation may furnish an attractive field 
for the discovery of remote causes ; but the causes which are present 
and within our power to alter, these should be the principal concern 
in education. Of the causes which have depressed public education 
in the South, the chief is to be found in the system of support and 
control. Supported and controlled by the remote power of the 
state, public schools have come to be regarded as eleemosynary 
institutions; and eleemosynary institutions are never held in high 
esteem among a free and independent people. As long as our 
schools are supported from the state treasury in such degree, so 
long will they remain without the pale of popular favor. But when 
each citizen of each community contributes directly to the support 
of the schools, the schools then become the schools of the people; 
and the people perceive that in elevating them they elevate them- 
selves and their posterity. This is the situation in the South. This 
is the situation among any people when the education of their 
children is relegated to a remote authority. The low esteem in 
which public schools have been held in the South is not due to a 
spirit of arrogant aristocracy. It is due to the belief that the 
education of our children should never be delegated to an authority 
too obscure and a power too remote. When public education is 
entrusted to the people, when the people perceive that they possess 
the sovereign power of support and the saving grace of control, then 
will public education become each citizen's private concern and each 
Christian's religious obligation. 

The President of the Conference: I now have the pleasure 
of introducing Dr. Walter B. Hill, Chancellor of the University 
of Georgia. Dr. Hill is the latest addition to the Southern Educa- 
tion Board — an addition which the board has felt much honored in 
being able to make. 



ii8 The Conference for Education. 

WALTER B. HILL. 

The extent of my obligation to the program, according to the 
terms of my engagement with the secretary, is measured in time 
by the period of five minutes, and is Hmited in subject-matter to a 
brief account of the pending local tax movement in Georgia. 

The present constitution of the state was adopted in 1877. 
At that time reconstruction-phobia had not subsided and the pro- 
visions in respect to local taxation were dictated in part by appre- 
hensions derived from the experiences of that calamitous era. The 
right of local taxation was recognized, but its exercise was hedged 
about with such restrictions as to be practically prohibitive. Before 
an election could be held, the recommendations of two successive 
grand juries must be obtained, and in the election the tax could 
not be voted except by securing the votes of two-thirds of all those 
qualified to vote, thus counting against the proposition all who 
were indifferent or providentially hindered from voting. Several 
campaigns in counties where local taxation was strongly popular 
proved that it could not overcome these hindrances. Accordingly, 
it was realized that the first step necessary was to change the con- 
stitution. A bill was introduced in the General Assembly sub- 
mitting an amendment to the vote of the people at the election 
to occur next October. The amendment will remove entirely the 
requirement of preliminary action by the two successive grand juries. 
It permits local taxation by counties or by districts within a county. 
It is conservative in that it requires a two-thirds vote, but the 
requirement is two-thirds of those voting and not as formerly two- 
thirds of the total qualified voters. The bill providing for the 
amendment passed the General Assembly, and is now pending for 
adoption or rejection by the people next fall. As soon as the bill 
became law, a meeting of the educational workers interested in the 
subject was called in the governor's office. Dr. Mclver being present, 
representing the Southern Education Board. A committee of 
seven citizens was appointed to draft an address to the people, 
urging the adoption of the amendment. This address was as 
strong as the committee could make it, and yet brief in form. It 
was published in the leading papers, furnished as stereotyped matter 
to all the country papers, and printed in leaflet form for very ex- 
tensive distribution. From the beginning it seemed wholly proba- 



Walter B. Hill. 119 

ble that the amendment would be adopted. No opposition has 
been developed. The governor of the state, who knows the public 
sentiment of the people of the state, publicly stated that in his 
opinion it was sure of adoption.* If its adoption had been the only 
question, there would have been no apparent necessity for any 
agitation or campaign, but it was felt desirable to interest the people 
in the subject actively, to secure the adoption of the amendment by 
an impressively commanding vote, and more especially to prepare 
the minds of the people by a preliminary campaign on the amend- 
ment to take immediate advantage of its provisions so soon as it 
should be adopted. Hence, the committee which had been ap- 
pointed to prepare the address was instructed to act as a campaign 
committee. During the fall and winter of last year they arranged 
educational rallies in many of the counties, securing the services 
for the most part of local speakers without expense. They fur- 
nished matter for the press and prepared a handbook of about fifty 
pages, which is intended principally to serve as a text-book for 
speakers. It has quotations from the educational governors of the 
Southern states, extracts from the addresses of Dr. Curry, Dr. 
Mclver, and others, short articles by leading county superintend- 
ents, statistics, etc. During the past winter the campaign has not 
been active, as the season was not favorable for public gatherings, 
and the public mind has been engrossed during the spring, until 
the 20th inst., with the general campaign for the nominations of 
state, district and county officials; but from now until October 
we shall carry on the campaign by the various agencies already 
mentioned and with the purposes heretofore stated. 

We shall be very happy to make our experience and our work 
in Georgia of service to other communities. Indeed, I presume 
that the possibility of this was the reason why a statement of this 
local movement was deemed suitable in this discussion. In the 
hope of contributing suggestions for use elsewhere, I will mention 
the following matters : 

I. We have stressed the point that taxation— especially dis- 
trict taxation — for primary schools is pure Jeffersonian democracy. 
There may be some Protestants in the South who doubt the in- 
errancy of the Scriptures; there may be some Catholics who ques- 
tion the infallibility of the Pope ; but there is yet to be found a man 

*Since this address was delivered, the Amendment has passed, 



I20 



The Conference for Educatiott. 



in the South who doubts the pohtical infalhbihty of Thomas Jeffer- 
son. In securing popular education, Jefferson sought to apply 
his favorite theory of government, which was the distribution of 
power. He preferred that local taxation for schools wherever 
practicable should be by districts. Information on this subject 
can be secured by obtaining from the National Bureau of Education 
an admirable compendium on Thomas Jefferson and the University 
of Virginia, published in i8 — . Any one desiring to follow his 
views in detail may refer to the following sources: Jefferson's 
"Writings," vi, 542, 566, viii, 205, 358; also his "Correspondence," 
53, 54, 103, 186, 443. 

2. We have used the sessions of the courts as a means of 
reaching the people. We have a little pride in this matter, because 
a man so full of resources as Dr. Mclver told us when he heard of 
this that it was a plan he had not thought of. The court sessions 
bring together an excellent popular audience. The leading citizens 
of the county are usually present, as members of the grand juries. 
In the rural communities, the courts bring to the county site for 
one reason or another a very large number of citizens. For special 
educational rallies an audience has to be worked up. Here at the 
court sessions are fine audiences already gathered. The judges are 
generally strong friends of education. Our speakers usually ask 
them for an hour during the noon recess, preferably on the opening 
day of court. The judges have always acceded to the suggestion, 
and usually adjourn an hour earlier before dinner or reconvene 
an hour later. 

3 . Our speakers have been definite in dealing with the situa- 
tion in each county. They have not "shelled the woods," but 
while giving general facts as to illiteracy, it has been suggested to 
them that they give also the number of illiterates in the county in 
which they are speaking. On the subject of the tax, they discuss 
not only the general situation in the state, but they go to the tax 
books of the particular county and ascertain just exactly what 
would be the additional cost to each taxpayer in case of the levy 
of the local tax for schools. It has often been found heretofore that 
when the discussion proceeds on general propositions alone, the 
most heated opponents of the tax have been those on whom the 
tax imposed would not exceed twenty-five or fifty cents. A definite 
and accurate presentation of this situation compels this class of 



William Lawrence. 121 

adversaries to be either silent or ridiculous. It is often both a 
revelation and a relief to the citizens generally to find how small 
an increment in taxation will secure such great benefits as are pro- 
posed by the local tax. 

4. In conclusion, I will say that if our campaign address or 
the handbook will be of any service to others, copies can be had 
by writing to the state school commissioner, Hon. W. B. Merritt, 
at Atlanta. The campaign has been principally in his charge, and 
he deserves the credit for the good work that has been done. 

The President of the Conference: In the absence of one of 
the speakers of this morning I will venture to exercise a little of 
the authority you have kindly imposed, and will call upon some 
of our visitors for a few words to the Conference for Education in 
the South. First, I will introduce to you the Rt. Rev. William 
Lawrence, D.D., of Massachusetts. 

BISHOP LAWRENCE 

You people of the South have been so kind to us that I think 
you have a right to know what are our passing impressions as we 
come to you from the North. For no one would have the hardi- 
hood to make such a short visit as we are making and say that he 
had gained impressions which could be called final. 

The first strong feature that strikes us all is this. As we have 
come through the South we feel that you have a strong love for 
the whole nation. The Civil War is, I will not say forgotten, but 
it is a thing of the past. The memories of the reconstruction 
period are some of them bitter, and no one of us can wonder at it. 
Still you people of the South feel bound together with us of the 
North in our national privileges and responsibilities. We are 
members one of another. Our problems of incoming peoples are 
yours, as your problems of race and education are ours. 

A second impression is this: that through the inadequacy of 
the press of the country, the people find it impossible to know each 
other. We of the North are not fully informed of Southern condi- 
tions. We read the headlines of the news from the South and gain 
the impression that there are continual lynchings and that the 
Southern people as a whole are indifferent to justice and the en- 
forcement of the law. We get the idea that the white people are 
indifferent to the education as well as to the rights of the negro; 



122 ' The Conference for Education. 

and it is necessary for some of us to come here and discover, as I 
believe we have discovered, that the people of the South are just 
as much in earnest as to the enforcement of the law as are the 
people of the North. We have discovered also that the people 
of the South love the negro even more than do the people of the 
North. 

I confess that I have had doubts upon this point as I have read 
how the whites are being given larger appropriations for their 
education than the blacks. But I have also had it borne in upon 
me that if on account of the poverty of the country there is not 
enough money to educate all immediately, it may be for the benefit 
of the negro that some preference be given to the earlier education 
of the white. 

• I say "for the benefit of the negro," because when the whites 
are educated the education of the negro must follow, for the white 
man will then discover that his safety and the welfare of the com- 
munity lie in the education of all the people. 

I have said enough, considering that Mr. Ogden gave me only 
two minutes in which to gather my thoughts. 

My last word is this. President Dabney spoke with feeling at 
the University of Alabama, of his deep sense of personal loss 
through the death of those who fell in the war. True ; but in every 
nation it is only through loss that there is gain; he that tries to 
save his life shall lose it, and he who loses his life in a cause which 
he believes to be right saves it for the nation. 

I believe that the people of the North, suffering as they also 
did by the death of their loved ones, are grateful if by their losses 
they have gained for the history of the nation and the children of 
the American people such characters as Wade Hampton, Stonewall 
Jackson and Robert E. Lee. 

The President of the Conference: I will now ask Dr. J. C. 
Cooper, of New Britain, Conn.- — one of the members of the cor- 
poration of Yale University — to address us. 

J. C. COOPER. 

I was surprised and startled some ten minutes ago by Mr. 
Ogden's sudden intimation that he was about to call me out. But 
when he explained that the regular order of procedure must be 
interrupted because certain gentlemen who had prepared addresses 



/. C. Cooper. 123 

had lost their voices and could not speak, and that impromptu 
speakers who had voices would be introduced in their stead, I 
thought of the Mississippi steamer and its whistle. The steamer 
had a very loud whistle which could not be blown except when 
the engine was shut off. You will understand, therefore, that the 
power of this convention is now shut off, and I am responsible only 
for the use of my voice. 

It has been my privilege to come often into this Southland, 
especially during the last twelve months. As we come, we are 
always enamored of the natural attractions of this beautiful coun- 
try, with its sunny skies, its wealth of flowers and the splendid 
products of its broad fields. It is a great and roomy land and its 
resources are inexhaustible. I am, however, continually impressed 
by the wise remark of a distinguished Congregational minister 
who was addressing the students of the Yale Divinity School. 
"After all, young gentlemen," he said, "after all, the principal 
thing in this world is the people." We are gathered here because 
of our interest in the people; because we believe that in the de- 
velopment of this vast nation of ours. South and North, East and 
West, everything depends upon the elevation of the people and of 
all the people. The wealth of a nation is men, not things. The 
advancement of our country, its agricultural progress, its commer- 
cial progress, its economic progress — all these rest upon the broad 
basis of an enlightened manhood. If we would have material 
prosperity we must first make men. We believe in manhood. 
We believe in the elevation of the lowest of men, in order that the 
image of God may be fully restored in them and that they, with us, 
may work together for the upbuilding of the nation. 

What are the resources of this region of the South? Coal and 
iron, you say. But coal and iron have been here from the begin- 
ning of the world. It was not until the right men came that the 
mines were worked and the furnaces were kindled. Here, as 
elsewhere, everything in the material development of the country 
has depended upon men, trained men, with purpose and energy 
and intelligence and character. All things move forward with 
manhood. Manhood is the standard of advance. I like the new 
version of the Scriptures in certain respects, and especially have I 
been impressed with that great commission of our Lord, where in- 
stead of reading, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel 



124 The Conference for Education. 

to every creature," it is written, "Go ye into all the world and 
preach the gospel to all creation." All creation does respond tO' 
the preaching of the gospel. Christianity clears the forests and 
cultivates the wilderness, opens the mines, improves agriculture, 
and in every way increases the fruits of the earth and enlarges 
its producing power. Those who are engaged in the work of educa- 
tion are engaged in the work of making men. Schools are manu- 
factories for making men. 

This Conference of Education has for its sole purpose the 
encouragement of this work. I am deeply impressed with the 
truth of the assertion, which we hear so frequently in these days, 
that the South and the North are coming to know each other better 
than they have before and that, in this mutual acquaintance, we 
are coming to help one another more than ever before. Benjamin 
Kidd has called our attention to the fact that whereas the lines 
of communication in commerce have hitherto been along the lines 
of latitude, East and West, yet the natural channels are along the 
fines of longitude. North and South, for the North and South are 
mutually dependent upon each ether, the one always producing 
what the other most lacks. The development of our own country 
so far has been an illustration of this. The tide of empire has been 
westward. Our great trunk roads have been from the East to the 
West. Our commerce has followed the parallels of latitude. But 
already a new movement is apparent in the tides of our national 
life. The North and the South are coming into closer and more 
intimate communication than ever before. We are moving freely 
up and down across Mason and Dixon's line, exchanging products 
and exchanging ideas, stimulating each other to nobler concep- 
tions of duty and broader views of national affairs. In the im- 
mediate future when the great waterway is opened across the isth- 
mus through which the main currents of the world's commerce are 
destined to flow, our Northern and Southern states are to be 
brought into such relations to one another as they have never 
known before. The cities of the Southern seaboard will take on 
new business and have unprecedented growth through the new 
commerce that shall be developed. 

Out of this new development and these new relations to be 
established between the North and the South there should come 
to our country a new and splendid uplift of humanity, a great 



/. C. Cooper. 125 

forward movement toward the consummation of our hopes for 
unification of our whole country and for the perfection of each 
separate part. In this vast work the chief agency must be Christian 
education. Our main hope is the common school. We are recog- 
nizing this fact in the North as never before and are feeling our 
dependence upon it. It is on this account that we rejoice with you 
in the great educational revival which is sweeping over the South 
— one comparable to no other in the history of our land, certainly 
not since the time of Horace Mann and Henry Barnard in New 
York and New England seventy years ago. 

Bishop Lawrence has already reminded you that we of the 
North have our serious social problems to deal with as you of the 
South have yours. One of these is the problem of immigration. 
Multitudes of people, many of them poor and ignorant and depraved , 
are flooding our Northland, coming from every nation under the 
sun, especially just now from the Latin nations of southern Europe. 
I have lived the past twenty-five years in a little city where seventy- 
five per cent, of the population are foreigners or the children of 
foreigners. The assimilation of this heterogeneous mass of new 
population and its successful incorporation into the body politic is 
no easy affair, and we have found that the most effective agency to 
this end is the common school. Many of the original immigrants do 
indeed become intelligent and useful citizens ; but Americans cannot 
be grown in a day or a year. Our hope is in the children. When the 
children can be passed through the various grades of our public 
schools, taught as they usually are by well-equipped teachers of 
Christian character and high purpose, they become Americans — 
with American ideals and purposes, with American enterprise and 
the American spirit. There is no other single agency so effective 
as this. The foreign home and the foreign church cannot produce 
the type of character necessary for American life. Out of our 
public schools come the boys and girls who are, in the future, to 
make the homes and the churches which in their turn will become 
the building forces of our civilization. 

I am glad to be here and to come under the inspiration of this 
great Conference. I wish to share in the new and uplifting influ- 
ence of this gathering as I may be able to share in it, and to make 
my profession of faith in the power of Christian education, broad 
and thorough and complete, an education of the head, the hand 



126 The Conference for Education. 

and the heart, which shall perfect the manhood of the nation, 
develop its resources, and unify its people as the 'children of one 
Father, who hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell 
upon the face of the whole earth. 

The President of the Conference: I now ask the Rt. Rev. W. 
C. McVickar, D.D., of the Diocese of Rhode Island, to speak to 
us, and I trust he will be good enough to respond. 

BISHOP McVICKAR. 

When Mr. Ogden came to me a few minutes since, and said that 
he wanted me to speak, I began to understand some remarks which 
he made in introducing the first speakers in this extra program 
arrangement, namely, that we who were thus interjected into the 
schedule were not expected at a moment's notice to offer anything 
very solid to the morning's discussion, but only to furnish, as it 
were, a sort of interlude to the more formal addresses; in other 
words, to fill the place which the little girl assigned to the sermon 
in a church whose service had pretty much run to musical per- 
formances, where they had come to sing everything that could be sung 
and some other things besides. The sermon, she explained, was 
intended only as a chance for the choir to rest. So as I understand 
the purpose of these extra speakers, it is to furnish a little rest to 
these "wise men from the East," with their more soHd theses, if 
not to the audience. 

And let me say at the outstart that I am not very successful 
in putting what is large into a small space, although I have had 
much practice in attempting it, at least ever since I have been 
grown up, and especially in days of travel. You will therefore be 
indulgent if I bungle in saying all I want to say in a few minutes 
which are allotted to me. I have a good deal that I want to say 
to this audience. 

First of all I want to express for myself, and in behalf of the 
company, of which I am an insignificant part, that is visiting 
your city at this time, the profound gratitude and admiration we 
feel for the very bountiful and warm hospitality which has been 
extended to us. We have been accustomed all our lives to hear 
of "Southern hospitality," and we have experienced that hospi- 
tality on other occasions, when we have visited the South; but we 



W. C. McVickar. 127 

have never known it more abundantly or more charmingly prof- 
fered than here in these last few days that we have been with you. 
You have made us feel so completely at home, and, I may add, 
we have so completely availed ourselves of your kindness, that it 
must have seemed to observers at times as if we owned the place, 
so royally has it been put at our disposal. 

Well, as you know, we are here with you in the interest of the 
great cause of education, but as has been so gracefully put by our 
noble president, we are the ones, after all, that are surely being 
educated. For myself, I feel that with every day and hour, not 
only of these inspiring conferences, but, almost better still, with 
every hour of this happy social intercourse and communion, my 
life is deepening and enlarging with ever new experiences of the 
rich and essentially one humanity and brotherhood, which underlie 
all superficial differences and conditions. And where, indeed, could 
such experiences more surely ripen and come to flower than in this 
mellow " Southland " of yours — (I love that term); and at a time 
when everything speaks of growth and beauty, and all nature is 
aflame. Let me here make a confession which may also serve as an 
illustration of what I am saying. Two years ago on our yearly pilgri- 
mage we were in Athens, Ga., and there, too, we were the recipients 
of a princely hospitality, and held high converse with choice and 
representative spirits. It was there that I first realized in its 
fulness the underlying unity and brotherhood of which I have 
spoken. After one of the meetings, at which there had been a most 
free and animated discussion, and one in which allusions to the 
Civil War had played a conspicuous part, someone said to me, 
"Rather delicate and ticklish matters were broached to-day." To 
which I answered, "I don't believe there can be any such thing as 
ticklish matters where there is such a spirit of frank friendliness, 
and such complete and mutual understanding." So completely and 
enthusiastically, indeed, had that spirit taken possession of the Con- 
ference that it adjourned over a session in order that its members 
might attend a gathering of citizens in celebration of the Confeder- 
ate Decoration Day, at which the oration on "The Confederate 
Soldier" was delivered by a well-known Georgian. The oration 
was a very noble and thrilling one, and so generous as well as just 
in its accord of admiration and honor to the heroes of the North 
as well as to those of the South ; and the response of applause on the 



128 The Conference for Education. 

part of the large audience was so warm and enthusiastic that all 
hearts were swept in one common, overwhelming tide of emotion 
over the memory of brave deeds done and brave lives offered, albeit 
on different sides of the same altar of patriotism. And here comes 
my confession — tell it not in Gath! So completely was I, as one of 
the crowd, carried away that I did, what I should never have con- 
ceived possible on any other occasion, I contributed at the close 
of the meeting to the completion of a Confederate monument. 
What do you think of that for a "black-hearted republican?" I 
remember the story of two Irishmen who, for the first time in their 
lives, were travelers by night in a sleeping car. Toward morning 
an accident occurred which gave them a thorough shaking up. 
In the panic which ensued one of them, in putting on his clothes, 
got his trousers on hind part before, and in answerto his compatriot's 
anxious inquiry as to whether he was altogether killed replied, " No, 
he thought not; but (regarding the peculiar disposition of his 
clothes) added that "he thought he must have sustained a fatal 
twist." Well, my friends, I can only say, with Pat, I think that 
I, and many more beside me, must have sutained a fatal twist in 
these upsetting experiences and it is a twist that we shall not get 
over. But my firstly has become my all, and my time has ex- 
pired. 

Mr. George Pierce Baker, of the Department of English of Har- 
vard University, was next introduced by the president of the 
Conference. 

GEORGE PIERCE BAKER. 

Friends: I think, after very delightful days on our train and 
here in Birmingham, I should divide that into Old Friends and New! 
Before our party reached Birmingham, Mr. Ogden, when he intro- 
duced us as a body to the audiences we have been meeting, used 
a word which I notice he has dropped. He called us his "curios" 
— a use of words which illustrates his well-known courtesy, for he — 
and the audiences — have been perfectly aware that the name 
usually given a collection of human curios is "freaks." But if 
Mr. Ogden is too kind to call us "freaks" and fears we are weary 
of " curios" let me make a suggestion from an experience of Barnum 
and Bailey. "The Greatest Show on Earth" was in England, but 
was not duly appreciated by our English cousins. Something must 



George Pierce Baker. 129 

be done. Therefore, the astute manager called together all his 
"curios" — the tattooed man, the bearded lady, and the dog-faced 
boy — and suggested as a means of arousing public interest that 
the "curios" should publicly protest that their feelings were deeply 
wounded by the advertisements of them as "The Greatest Living 
Collection of Human Freaks." The idea was taken up with en- 
thusiasm. The "curios" held a public meeting to pass votes of 
resentment, and appointed one of their number to write to the 
Times. That letter touched the public heart. Letters of sym- 
pathy and letters suggesting less brutal synonyms poured in for 
the Times; and meantime the public flocked to see these sensitive 
souls encased in strange exteriors. Finally, when manager and 
"curios" were rejoicing in well-filled coffers and unabated interest, 
a bishop — no less — wrote to the Times, gravely marshaling his 
arguments to prove that these sensitive souls should be called 
"prodigies." This the manager, now sure of his public, hailed as 
the final word, and thereafter in England the "Human Freaks" 
were advertised as "Prodigies." After what you have heard from 
those just preceding me will you not support me in suggesting to 
Mr. Ogden that hereafter he call his collection, "prodigies"? Of 
course they will blush, but stimulated by your delightful hospitality, 
I am sure they will deserve the title. 

Bishop McVickar said that it is difficult to be in this party and 
not preach. It is; count the bishops and clergymen in this party 
and you will see why. But I maintain that I have a special right 
to preach. Sailing down the coast of Spain once in a little tramp 
steamer, I had spent nearly all day in the wheel-house with the 
canny Scotch captain. Just as we were going down to dinner, he 
looked at me sharply and said: "What do you do for a living?" 
"What do you think?" "Well, Lve been watching you as we've 
been talking, and I can't just make you out. You are either a 
minister or an actor." "No, I am a teacher." "Humph, a little 
of both!" If, then, I don't look as if I had come here utterly 
unprepared to speak that is the actor; and if I venture to preach a 
little, that is the minister. 

I wonder whether this audience realizes the extent to which 
we represent in this party the colleges and universities of the 
Middle States and New England — Yale, Harvard, Columbia, the 
University of Pennsylvania, Amherst, Williams? I wonder, too, 



130 The Conference for EdticaHon. 

whether these college graduates, professors and presidents, stirred, 
touched, perhaps inspired, by what they have seen and heard since 
they came into the Southland, have not had in mind often each 
man the motto of his alma mater. For many a man that mottO' 
sums up all the particular college he loves to call his means in 
thought and deed, and is one of his chief inspirations. I know 
that I for one, during these crowded ten days since we left New 
York, have had constantly in mind the motto which Harvard bears 
on her shield. Look where you will at Harvard, you will find on 
her walls, emblazoned in the jeweled glass of her memorial windows, 
the words Christo et Ecclesice Veritas. "For Christ and the 
Church. Truth." Doubtless to the rigid Puritans who chose 
those words they meant, "Truth for Christ and my particular 
creed," but the generations since, yes even some of the men on this 
platform have taught Harvard men to read that motto; "For 
Christ and the broadest service of mankind by truth." 

Who can be a teacher to-day and fail to recognize what truth 
through education has yet to do for this country of ours — the 
alluring opportunities North, South, East and West? Surely none. 
But it is sometimes difficult to remember that even the questions 
we are prone to regard as particularly our own other men elsewhere 
are trying equally hard to solve, and that only by mutual under- 
standing and sympathy, by co-operation, can the great educational 
opportunities of this decade be fulfilled. 

Yet one cannot travel through any part of the country as we 
are traveling through your state and not recognize all this. It is 
only a short time since, in Ohio, I heard a group of representative 
men discussing earnestly one of the topics which has been treated 
here, improvement of the financial and the professional position of 
the teacher. To know at first hand the enthusiasm and the success 
with which you are grappling your problems in education must 
mean for us graduates and teachers of Northern colleges stimula- 
tion to heartier endeavor in our own work. And as we clasp the 
hands of these Southern educators whose patience, enthusiasm, 
and effectiveness the young men they have sent North to us have 
never wearied in praising, I am sure that Harvard motto is in the 
hearts and on the lips of us all — "For Christ and the broadest 
service of mankind by truth— through education ! " 



Sydney J. Bowie. 131 

The President of the Conference: I now take great pleasure 
in introducing to this audience the Hon. Sydney J. Bowie, member 
of Congress from the Fourth Congressional District of Alabama. 
Mr. Bowie will speak to us on the special topic of this morning, 
"Local Taxation for Public Education." 

SYDNEY J. BOWIE. 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: In contemplating this 
question of local taxation for public schools, after reading all I 
can find upon the subject, and especially after giving it the most 
serious possible consideration, the wonder to me is, not how any 
one can be for it, but how can any one be against it. 

The question involved is elementary. The great revolution of 
1776 was fought under the magic cry of "No taxation without 
representation." This was but the assertion of the right of self- 
government. Who would have supposed, in view of the blood our 
forefathers shed in assertion of the principle that a parliament over 
the seas could not tax them without their consent, that in its stead 
a government should have grown up in our own midst under which 
their descendants were denied the privilege of determining whether 
or not they would levy a tax on their own property for their own 
benefit? 

It is difficult for a disciple of Thomas Jefferson, who believes 
both in the right and capacity of a people — especially of this people 
— for self-government, to discuss the subject with those who would 
inhibit the right and question the capacity. 

We have been told that every question has two sides to it, but 
we should never lose sight of the fact that one of these sides is 
right and the other wrong. The supreme question for us to con- 
sider is which side shall we take. "Under which king? Bezonian, 
Speak or die. " 

I suppose that in this audience I may quote without disappro- 
bation and praise without disfavor the Father of Democracy, the 
most passionate believer of all men in the right and capacity of the 
people to rule, in many respects the most renowned and most useful 
statesman that this, or any other country, has produced. Said he: 

" If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civili- 
zation, it expects to be what never was and never will be. 

"The most effectual means of preventing the perversion of 



1 3 '2 The Conference for Education. 

power into tyranny are to illuminate as far as practicable the minds 
of the people. 

" No other sure foundation can be devised for the preservation 
of peace and happiness. Preach a crusade against ignorance. 
Establish and improve the law for educating the common people. 
Let our countrymen know that the people alone can protect us 
from the evils of misgovernment. 

"Above all things, I hope the education of the common people 
will be attended to; convinced that on their good sense we may 
rely with the most security for the preservation of a due degree 
of liberty." 

And in discussing his famous bill for the education of all the 
people of Virginia, he said: "The expense of the elementary 
schools for every county is proposed to be levied on the wealth of 
the county, and all children, rich and poor, to be educated at these 
three years free." 

"The truth is that the want of common education with us is 
not from our poverty, but from the want of an orderly system. 
More money is now paid for the education of a part [referring to 
their private school system], than would be paid for that of the 
whole, if systematically arranged. 

"What will be the retribution of the wealthy individual [for 
his support of general education]? First, the peopling of his 
neighborhood with honest, useful and enlightened citizens, under- 
standing their own rights and firm in their perpetuation. Second, 
when his own descendants become poor, which they generally do 
within three generations (no law of primogeniture now perpetuating 
wealth in the same families), their children will be educated by the 
then rich, and the little advance he now makes to poverty, while 
rich himself, will be repaid by the then rich, to his descendants 
when they become poor, and thus give them a chance of rising 
again. This is a solid consideration and should go home to the 
bosom of every parent. It will be seed sown in fertile ground. 
It is a provision for his family, looking to distant times, and far in 
duration beyond what he has now in hand for them." 

That 'this right ought to exist it seems to me will not admit of 
any serious controversy. The only point to decide is, is its exer- 
cise necessary ? 

There are some occasions when facts simply must be told and 



Sydney J. Bonne. 133 

the truth spoken. I know it comes hard, but in the midst of self- 
congratulation and self-praise, in the midst of self-glorification, let 
us not forget the danger of self-deception. 

We all know that our state is great — the greatest in the world. 
We all know that our soil is fertile — the most fertile in the world. 
We all know that our climate is good — the best in the world. We 
all know that our women are beautiful — the most beautiful in the 
world. 

But there are some things which we may not know, or at least 
which we are not in the habit of emphasizing. For instance, it 
may possibly be information to some that Alabama spends on 
education a less sum per capita for each pupil in actual attendance 
than any state in the Union. We are all aware, of course, that 
we spend less than the rich and wealthy states of the North, but 
some may, perhaps, hear for the first time that Alabama, upon 
which we are all accustomed to look as the richest state in point of 
mineral resources and mineral development in the South, and one 
of the richest in the Union, is behind every other Southern state, 
many of which are actually as well as relatively poorer than we are, 
in the sum appropriated for public education. 

It may be said that a comparison between this state and 
some of the states of the North would be unfair, but certainly it 
will be no injustice to compare Alabama's record on that subject 
with Tennessee on the north, Georgia on the east, Florida on the 
south and with Mississippi and Louisiana and Texas on the west. 
The average expenditure per capita for each pupil in Tennessee is 
$5.17; in Mississippi, $6.48; in Georgia, $6.93; in Florida, $10.41; 
in Louisiana, $8.82; in Texas, $9.95; while in Alabama it is only 
$4.41. Not another state in the Union, rich or poor, old or young, 
spends as little. Several of the states here quoted cannot compare 
with Alabama in natural wealth, in natural resources, m climate 
or in natural advantages. Let us carry the illustration a step 
further. 

It is a remarkable fact that the percentage of illiteracy among 
the white males twenty-one years of age and upward in the state 
of Alabama is greater than it was in i860, 1850 and 1840. The 
pioneers who came to this state when it was practically a wilderness 
and laid the foundation for its future greatness brought more 
education and culture with them than has descended to their 



134 The Conference for Education. 

grandchildren and great-grandchildren who live here to-day. 
But stranger still than this, with all our boasted progress, 
while there has been some reduction of illiteracy since 
1870, yet the actual number of illiterate white voters is 
now largely more than it was thirty years ago. The increase 
of male illiterates of twenty-one years and upward in the 
war decade from i860 to 1870, was only 3,443, but in the thirty 
years of peace, from 1870 to 1900, the actual number of white male 
ilHterates over twenty-one years of age increased from 17,429 to 
31,614, an actual gain of 14,185. There were more white illiterates 
over twenty-one years in 1880 than in 1870; more in 1890 than in 
1880; more in 1900 than in 1890. The percentage of illiterates 
among the white males over twenty-one years in 1840 was 11.9; 
in i860 it was 12.2; in 1900, 13.6. So also has the total number 
of illiterates of both races over ten years of age increased in every 
decade of this state since 1870. 

In Alabama in 1870 there were 383,012 illiterates over ten 
years of age; in 1900, 443,590, an increase of 60,578 ; in 1870, 92,059 
white illiterates in Alabama over ten years of age. In 1900, 104,- 
883, an increase of 12,834. 

Compare this with Georgia, which has, during the same period, 
reduced its white illiteracy from 124,939 to 101,264. Compare it 
with Mississippi, which has reduced it from 48,028 to 36,844; com- 
pare it with Tennessee, which has reduced her white illiteracy from 
178,727 to 159,086. 

These are unpleasant facts, but if any dependence is to be put 
upon the records as published by the Census Bureau they state 
the simple truth. 

Is it the part of wisdom or statesmanship to ignore these con- 
ditions or shall we, to quote the words of the immortal bard, "take 
arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing, end them?" 
If you send for a physician, suffering from a dangerous malady, 
would you want him to prescribe a remedy before he had diagnosed 
the case, or would you want him to diagnose the case before he 
prescribed a remedy? The question comes home to us in the midst 
of all our boasting, "Why is all this? What explanation have we 
to make?" Fortunately the answer is plain, simple and easy of 
demonstration. There is no chance to fail in the diagnosis. 

Alone of all the states in the American Union, Alabama has 



Sydney J. Bowte. 135 

denied to every minor civil sub-division in the state except incor- 
porated towns the right of local taxation for public schools, and 
this is why they have languished and decayed. The only aid which 
our public-school system derives in our rural communities, which 
hold nine-tenths of our population, is from the state treasury. In 
our municipalities provision is made by law for municipal aid or 
supplement to the state fund. 

When we turn from a contemplation of the facts which we have 
just presented as applicable to the whole state to the case as made 
with reference to the municipalities which have and exercise the 
right of local taxation or local appropriation from municipal 
treasuries in aid of public education, the change presents an inspiring 
and hopeful record. The total percentage of illiteracy among the 
whites over ten years of age in all of the cities in the Union having 
over four thousand inhabitants is eight-tenths of one per cent. 
In the South and in Alabama, it is only one and one-half per cent. 
In the North and West it is six-tenths of one per cent. 

Now the difference between the illiteracy of the cities of the 
North and South is so small as to almost amount to a negligible 
quantity. It is practically non-existent, except as it is created 
by the tide of immigration from the illiterates in the surrounding 
country. The problem of self-help, of local aid by taxation, has 
solved the question in every town in every state, North and South, 
of over four thousand inhabitants, and probably in every town of 
over a thousand, certainly in most of the latter. If local aid will 
accomplish this result in our towns and cities of more than one 
thousand population, why should not the same aid accomplish the 
same result in our rural communities.'* 

But there is another side to the picture. I dislike to dwell 
upon it, but Dr. Dabney says that in 1870 the negro illiterates out- 
numbered the whites by 90,000, but that in 1900 the white illiterates 
outnumbered the negroes by 277,000. That in June, 1900, there 
were in the United States 2,326,000 persons over twenty-one years 
of age unable to read or write. Of this number, 977,000 were of the 
negro race and 1,254,000 of the white race. Contrast these figures 
with 1870. In that year there were 838,000 negro illiterates, 
against 748,000 white illiterates. Of the white illiterates, a large 
proportion was foreign born, 565,000. But the number of native 
born is 688,000, or 113,000 more than the foreign-born illiterates. 



136 The Conference for Edtication. 

Of all of this number of native-born white illiterates, the over- 
whelming majority is in the Southern states, and Alabama has an 
undue proportion. 

Let us go a step further. In the eight counties of Blount, 
Cherokee, Cleburne, Cullman, Winston, Marion, DeKalb and 
Jackson there were 18,154 white illiterates over ten years of age 
in 1900, against 3,432 negroes. Contrast these with eight other 
counties in this state, in which the white illiterates number only 
2,071, against 112,794 negroes. The percentage of illiteracy 
among the negro population of the state of Alabama was reduced 
in the decades from 1880 to 1900 from 80.6 to 57.4 per cent., or 
over 23 per cent., while in the same time the reduction of white 
illiteracy was only 10.2. 

Can anyone contemplate these figures without feeling that they 
deserve consideration? We have heard a great deal about the 
negro problem in the South. We are disposed to sympathize and 
commiserate with ourselves upon the existence of this problem, 
and we have friends who feel that it is the only one we have to vex 
us; but I say to-day that the South has done its duty to the negro 
race, whether before or since the war. His progress in slavery was 
greater than it was in savagery, and his progress as a freeman in the 
Southern states has been all that anyone could expect. 

The percentage of illiteracy among negroes over ten years 
of age in the South Atlantic states was reduced from 85 per cent, 
in 1870 to 47.1 per cent, in 1900; and in the South Central states 
from 86 per cent, in 1870 to 48.6 per cent in 1900. During the same 
period of time, we have been told by so great an authority as the 
distinguished Commissioner of Education of the United States, that 
up to 1899 the South had appropriated $109,000,000 for the educa- 
tion of the negro race. As this enormous sum has increased at 
the rate of six and one-half milHons of dollars per annum since 
1899, we find the startling total of more than one hundred and 
forty millions of dollars has been contributed by the South to the 
support of negro education since the war. Of this sum, less than 
five million dollars was paid by the negro. The Southern whites 
have, therefore, given to the negro every dollar of tax which he 
paid, and have added thereto the magnificent total of more than 
one hundred and thirty-five millions of dollars A voluntary con- 



Sydney J. Bowie. 137 

tribution from one race for the benefit of another without a counter- 
part in the history of the human family! 

Contrast these figures with the record of fifteen Northern 
states. In Maine, the per cent, of negro illiteracy has increased 
from 10.8 per cent, in 1870 to 25.8 per cent, in 1900. 

In Wisconsin, from 23.6 per cent to 39.6 per cent. 

In Minnesota, from 41 per cent to 41.2 per cent. 

In Montana, from 12 per cent, to 48.2 per cent. 

In Wyoming, from 34.6 per cent, to 41. i per cent. 

In Arizona, from 35.8 per cent, to 73.6 per cent. 

In Nevada, from 6.3 per cent to 66.8 per cent. 

In Utah, from 38.2 per cent, to 52 per cent. 

In Washington, from 33.1 per cent, to 36 per cent. 

In Oregon, from 26.5 per cent, to 36.1 per cent. 

In California, from 9.6 per cent to 31.1 per cent. 

In North Dakota, since 1880, from 44.2 per cent, to 59.2 per 
cent. 

In South Dakota, from 44.2 per cent, to 51 per cent. 

And in the western division of the United States, this negro 
illiteracy has increased from 16 per cent, to 42.8 per cent. 

In the North Central and North Atlantic divisions, represent- 
ing the wealthy and populous states of the East and the Middle 
West, there has been a reduction of negro illiteracy, but at a rate 
which will not compare with the South. 

I contrast these figures in no spirit of criticism and I am aware 
that the percentage of negro population in some of the Northern 
and Western states, to which I have referred, is so small as to make 
the comparison of but little value, but I insert them in these remarks 
in order that it may be known that the South has nobly and grandly 
responded to whatever obligations existed upon her with reference 
to this unfortunate race. To-day the rights, the happiness, and 
the future of the negro race are better preserved and better protected 
in the South than in any other part of the globe. There has never 
been an instance since the day the English cavalier first set foot 
upon the historic ground of Jamestown to the present time, in 
which the South has failed, either in peace or war, to rise to the 
height of every question, to discharge the duty of every crisis, to 
bear without complaint its part of every burden and to do its full 
share in maintaining untarnished the national honor! Show me 



138 The Conference for Education. 

that page of our country's history which has not been made brighter 
by the wisdom of her statesmen and the valor of her arms ! 

The history of the South is a glorious and inspiring one, and 
it has wisdom, courage, statesmanship and honor enough among 
its own people to meet every emergency, to solve and rightly solve, 
every question that is presented to it. But there is to-day con- 
fronting us in Alabama a problem which, if true to the proud tra- 
ditions of our forefathers, and the glorious history which they have 
handed down to us, we must begin to solve, and solve at once. 
This question is the problem of white ilhteracy. It has been 
stated over and over again, that the state of Alabama appropriated 
more than one-half of its general revenues for the purpose of educa- 
tion. This is true. We hailed with supreme satisfaction the pro- 
visions in our new constitution on the educational question. But 
in its practical analysis, how has it worked out? It largely in- 
creased the amount fixed in the con titution of 1875, and it also 
increased the amount which had theretofore been appropriated by 
the legislature, but the painful fact had as well be stated now as 
hereafter, that while there is an increase in the total amount raised 
by taxation under the new constitution, yet that increase was not 
as great as the increase in the school population. In other words, 
the per capita distribution to school-children between the ages of 
seven and twenty-one in 1902, before the constitution went into 
effect, was $1.37, while in 1903, by reason of increased number of 
children, it was only $1.31. 

That the state cannot increase the amount it appropriates is 
plain. It needs every dollar of its surplus revenues for general 
pubHc purposes; it gives now all it can. There are only three 
other sources which have been suggested. 

The first — shall I name it ? — is charity. That we could get it 
in quantities sufficient to be of any service to us is impossible. 
That we should ask it is unthinkable. 

The second, is aid from the national treasury. This might have 
been obtained at one time if the South had been United in asking 
it, but they refused, and now, whether desirable or not, the oppor- 
tunity is gone, and probably forever. "The mill will never grind 
again with the water that has passed." 

The last method is by local taxation as a supplement to state 
aid. The problem of local taxation is simply to allow each com- 



Sydney J. Bowie 139 

munity which wants it to levy a reasonable tax, under reasonable 
restrictions, upon its own property to educate its own people. This 
is the approved method in all the states. It has been tried with 
success in every state in the Union, North and South, except in 
the state of Alabama, and it has failed in none. In our own state 
alone are the people forbidden by our organic law to exercise this 
high function of a free people, the right to levy taxes upon their 
own property for their own benefit. Who shall say that the people 
cannot be trusted with this right? It is their own property. Can 
the right be justly taken from them? Those involved are their 
children. Can they not decide for themselves what they will do about 
it ? I know there are some people who question the wisdom and policy 
of public education. Ithasalways been so, but we are to-day witness- 
ing the spectacle of a public-school system which is just sufficient in 
rural communities to destroy the private schools and not sufficient 
to reach the standard of those private schools of sixty years ago. 
We ought either to provide sufficient money for the operation of 
free public schools in the rural communities of our state, or we 
ought to go out of the business altogether and leave it to the private 
schools. I am not in favor of the latter, nor will the people listen 
to it for a single moment. We could not recall the private schools 
of the past, if we would — we would not if we could. 

When I recall the fact that our native white illiteracy is greater 
now than it was in i860; that the actual number of our illiterates, 
both black and white, is greater than in 1870, or 1880, or 1890; 
that the increase of our school fund has not kept pace with the 
increase of our school-children, I am reminded of the old story of 
the little boy who was late at school one day. The morning was 
very cold — a drizzling rain of the night before had been frozen 
over, so that the ground was covered with a coat of ice. The 
teacher indignantly demanded an explanation of his tardiness. 
"Well," said the boy, "I started early enough, but every time I 
took a step forward I slipped two backward." "How, then, did 
you get here ? ' ' thundered the teacher. ' ' I turned around and went 
the other way." It seems to me that the time has come for Ala- 
bama to turn around and go the other way. 

Under a recent act of our legislature, every school in the state 
receiving public aid is required to be taught free at least five 
months in the year. This statute is impossible of literal enforce- 



I40 The Conference for EducaUon. 

ment in a few localities, but it has been generally observed, and in 
the main has had a wholesome and beneficial effect upon our public- 
school system. But it is not enough. The true idea is to permit, 
under fair restrictions and reasonable limitations, each local com- 
munity in the state, needing and desiring it, the privilege of taxing 
its own property a sufficient sum, as a supplement to the state fund, 
to increase this free term from five to nine months in the year. 

The value of local aid as a thing to be desired in itself, has 
never been better stated than in the words of the lamented Graham, 
delivered at your last Conference in Richmond in April, 1903, 
Said he: "My work and speeches have been along the line of stim- 
ulating the people to self-reliance and to the local support of their 
schools, looking ultimately to free public schools supported by 
local taxation, with the district as a unit. In my opinion every 
dollar, the giving of which is felt and is to some extent a sacrifice 
upon the part of the person making the contribution, whether 
voluntary or under form of law, consecrated to the cause of public 
education, is worth more to the contributor and to the growth of 
genuine patriotism than a hundred dollars which may come from 
unmerited, or unappreciated, or from misdirected philanthropy." 

These inspiring words of this noble young Lycidas, called "ere 
his prime," state the whole case. Let them be cherished in our 
memories and translated into our deeds. Let us receive the mission 
as a high trust, bequeathed to us by our young and fallen leader, 
and here pledge ourselves to his noble spirit, looking down upon 
us from his mansion in the skies, that the banner which he so proudly 
bore shall be waved aloft and the cause for which he so proudly 
fought shall be carried to a triumphant victory! 

The argument, then, in favor of local taxation, is twofold. 
First, it is a necessity. Second, no truly good results can come to 
pupil or community without it. It stimulates self-help, that key- 
stone of character, that never failing avenue to success, when all 
else fails. It creates interest. It builds up patriotism. It ac- 
complishes results. 

Moreover, I have just referred you to the diverse conditions 
prevailing in different sections of our state. I have pointed you 
to eight counties which have over 18,000 white illiterates over ten 
years old to about 3000 negroes. I have also mentioned eight 
other counties where there are 2071 white illiterates against 112,- 



Sydney J. Bowie. 141 

794 negroes. Now some of the counties having a large white illit- 
eracy may want to press forward and relieve it. Others having a 
different state of affairs, and contributing annually from three to 
five dollars per annum to negro education to one which they can 
lawfully contribute to white education, may feel that they have 
done enough, or at least are not yet ready to increase their appro- 
priation for this purpose. Shall the counties or communities which 
are ready and anxious to go forward be compelled to wait upon 
the pleasure of those who are satisfied with existing conditions? 
Shall we make of our laws and policy a Procrustean bed, which 
stretched the men who were too short to the required length and 
cut off the legs of those who were too long? 

The speed of a fleet is said to be that of its slowest ship. Shall 
the swift cruisers of our educational fleet be tied down to the speed 
of our monitors or gunboats? Is it wise or right to deny to one 
community what it wants and needs, and is willing to pay for, 
simply because some other community doesn't want it, doesn't 
need it and isn't willing to pay for it? The questions will answer 
themselves. To borrow the words of Mr. Edgar Gardner Murphy, 
" I am not in favor of compulsion in this matter. It is against 
compulsion that I speak." 

I am aware that there is a provision in the state constitution 
of 1 90 1 granting to counties upon certain conditions the right to 
levy a tax of one mill for public-school purposes. I favor the levy 
of this tax wherever practicable. But it takes a three-fifths vote 
of an entire county, and the fact is, portions of a county may be 
served with as good schools as they want, and therefore opposed 
to the levy of an additional tax. More than this, the amount is 
too small. It is impossible of execution in many of the counties; 
it is impracticable and insufficient in all. 

We have been told that unsettled questions have no pity for 
the repose of nations, and that no question is settled until it is 
settled right. 

It is idle to talk about this being a settlement of this question. 
A system of schools maintained largely by local taxation and guided 
and controlled by local interest is an absolute necessity here as it 
has been proved to be elsewhere. I tell you there can be no repose 
in Alabama until these fetters have been stricken from the limbs of 
freemen. On Thanksgiving Day, when our new constitution, by 



142 The Conference for Education. 

proclamation of the governor, went into effect in 1901, the people 
of Alabama, for the first time since i860, felt the chains of pohtical 
bondage fall from their limbs. They have written and estabhshed, 
so far as their political rights are concerned, a constitution, which, 
in my humble judgment, is the best of any state in the Union. 
Having hedged about the ballot-box with ample safeguards and 
eliminated the debased and unfit portion of the population, we are 
free at last and, thank God, can speak our sentiments anywhere on 
any question that comes up for discussion. 

Let no man think the fight for education has ended. It has 
only begun. It will not end until the curse of illiteracy is banished 
forever from our doors, and until our school system is the equal of 
any in the land. 

We have heard it said that the door of hope should not be 
closed in the face of the negro. For the one hundred and four 
thousand whites, male and female, over ten years of age, who, in 
1900, were illiterates and for their descendants I plead to you 
to-day that the door of hope may not be shut forever in their faces 
and that the hand of opportunity may be outstretched to them. 

A distinguished statesman of Texas once said: "Turn Texas 
loose and let her grow!" To-day cannot we echo his words and 
say, "Turn Alabama loose and let her grow!" Strike from her 
limbs these fetters that bind and retard her growth, make free her 
citizenship, restore the right of self-government. Limit the taxa- 
tion for educational purposes, but let the limit be reasonable and 
the method practicable. When this is done, and not until then, 
Alabama will take her rightful place in the galaxy of the states, 
the equal of any in progress and development, as she is to-day in 
material wealth, with which a generous Providence has endowed 
her! 

The President of the Conference: By request of the Local 
Committee, the Rev. Dr. H. C. Cummings, of Boston, Mass., will 
occupy a few minutes in speaking of a local philanthropic enterprise. 

H. C. CUMMINGS. 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: Mr. Ogden said that 
I wanted to speak to you just for a few moments by the request of 
some local committee, with regard to a very important enterprise 



H. C. Cnmmtngs. 143 

which we have been hearing about. As a matter of fact, when 
Mr. Ogden took us on this educational party, he told us we must 
attend to business — that is to say, we must attend strictly to the 
meetings, and learn all we could, and we don't dare go home and 
face him there unless we have done our duty in that respect. I 
suspect that his action at this moment is in the nature of a punish- 
ment, because I have been playing truant. 

I have been in a room over in yonder corner, and I should like 
to say for the benefit, not only of the citizens of Birmingham, but 
of the whole state of Alabama, that I have been sitting at the feet 
of one of the truest teachers that it has ever been my privilege to 
listen to — and I have been going to school more than half my life 
to the best kind of teachers that the world affords. I say I have 
been sitting at the feet of one of the ablest and most inspiring 
teachers that it has ever been my privilege to know, I refer to your 
distinguished fellow citizen. Judge Feagin, of Birmingham; and I am 
here simply to express my sense of obligation, I am here to express 
my sense of gratitude at what I have learned this morning from 
him, with regard to another and a greater department of education. 

You know that one of the greatest problems of any community 
is caring for the boys and the girls who become what we call our 
juvenile criminals. In the state of Massachusetts, where I live, 
we thought that we had learned something with regard to the best 
methods of solving this part of the educational problem. We 
thought we knew something about the great truth that judges and 
courts and the officials of the law were not there for the purpose 
of putting prisioners in jail, but for the purpose of keeping people 
out of them. We thought we knew that we must begin with the 
children, that we must have separate courts for them. We thought 
we knew that we must use the appropriate system, a separate sys- 
tem, for the younger and the older, put them under moral influences, 
keep them so far as possible out of the institutions which taint 
their reputations and make it hard to go back and earn their bread. 
We thought that we had learned many other things, but I find that 
some of you have learned them better and that, best of all for you 
and for your future, your teachers are the judges at the head of 
your great legal institutions; and I wish simply to congratulate 
you that you have such teachers, that you have men on your 
benches like Judge Feagin, who know the best that the world has 



144 ^^^ Conference for Education. 

to teach, who can tell you to-day the very latest inventions that 
the world has made with regard to the solution of the great prob- 
lems of criminality. He is here ready to lead you on, and there is 
no better investment in point of money, in point of morals, in point 
of statesmanship, than to fall in behind him, and absolutely, men, 
women and all, go whither he leads ; and I believe that in his leader- 
ship you will find yourselves absolutely leading the world. 

Mr. President, allow me in conclusion simply to take this op- 
portunity as one of the members of this party which has been enter- 
tained, to express my own deep and affectionate sense of obligation 
to the citizens of Birmingham, and of many of the towns who have 
entertained us throughout the state. The other day at Tuscaloosa 
some one pinned the colors of the State University on my coat and, as 
Professor Baker said, I was glad to have them there, first because one 
of those colors, the crimson or the red, is the color of my own beloved 
university, and I was glad to have them there, because I thought 
to myself that after all they were the red and the white, and that 
is two-thirds of the national colors; and the blue skies, which arched 
over us, and roofed us all into one common country, and one com- 
mon family of brothers and sisters — that makes the third. Ladies 
and gentlemen, we shall go home feeling proud of our country, 
because we have known our brothers and sisters here in the South, 
and we shall always wear the red and the white of Alabama in our 
hearts. • 

THIRD DAY. 
EVENING SESSION. 

The Conference was called to order by the president, shortly 
after eight o'clock, in the Jefferson Theatre. As at the previous 
sessions, the attendance was not only representative, but was so 
large as to tax the capacity of the building. The president first 
introduced Dr. Charles D. Mclver, President of the State Normal 
College, of Greensboro, N. C. 

CHARLES D. McIVER. 

I do not know how to make the kind of speech our President, 
to my surprise, has called upon me to make. I did not know when 
I came here to-night that I was to make this or any other kind of 



Charles D. M elver. 14; 

speech, but I will venture the remark that I suspect that not many 
of us realize the significance of the great Conference in which we 
are taking part. This is the only educational association in the 
world presided over by a great merchant, the vice-president 
formerly a minister, the secretary a physician, and the treasurer, 
I am thankful to say, a banker. 

I do not believe that there was ever such a company of people 
so organized for the purpose of public education. Teachers every- 
where meet to discuss purely professional work and ideals, and 
frequently they pass resolutions pointing out the duty of others; 
but W3 teachers have lived too much to ourselves and have not 
influenced the thought and action of the most influential citizens 
of our own generation, accustomed to think only of influencing the 
thought and action of the leading citizens of the generation that 
comes after us. We have not always done that as well as we 
wanted to do it, but I think it was generally because we did not 
have the wherewithal to take care of ourselves and those dependent 
upon us and to fit ourselves for our great task. 

I am glad, therefore, to see this combination of teachers allied 
in educational endeavor with business men. If the business men 
of the country will give the teachers a fair chance, the people will 
be educated. 

We frequently hear comments on the inferiority of teachers. 
Can we expect to secure the most capable men and women to train 
children at a smaller wage than we pay convicts from the peniten- 
tiary when we employ them to work on our public roads? I heard 
once of an enterprising Jew who sold "a first-class overcoat for $5," 
and in an hour the customer came back to him complaining about 
the inferiority of the coat and saying that he had found that the 
coat had holes in it and that it was full of moths; whereupon the 
Jew said, "What did you expect to find in a first-class overcoat 
for $5? Did you expect it to have humming-birds in it?" There 
is nothing in this house that we would let a $40 a month laborer 
work upon except the brains of our children. You listened to a 
magnificent address here last night on the economic value of educa- 
tion; but a weakling cannot train boys and girls into great men 
and women whose education has economic value. We must have 
masters as teachers. I would prefer that my boy and girl should 
come into occasional contact with a master spirit even if they did 



146 The Conference for Education. 

not gain so much literary training than to come in contact with a 
teacher with all the degrees that the colleges can confer, but who 
is a wooden sort of person without generous ambition and without 
the power to inspire generous ambition in others. Let us keep 
impressing upon the public that in order to secure masterful teachers, 
who are the seed-corn of civilization, whose business it is to hand 
down from this generation to the next the best that we have been 
able to see and know and do and dream, we must be willing to 
invest in the trainers of our children more money and time and 
thought than we have ever yet invested in them. I do not want 
my children taught geography by a person who has never been 
outside of the congressional district in which she is teaching. I do 
not want my children to be taught the relation between capital 
and labor by a man or woman who never expects to see more than 
$150 or $200 capital for a year's salary. 

It is not a question of wasting the time of a child for six or 
seven years, but it is the waste of time of an effective worker in 
after-life — man or woman. Too many people underrate the value 
of a child's time. This reminds me of a story of an Alabama 
farmer. When the teacher in his district visited his home, the 
farmer was feeding his hogs, throwing out ears of corn to them, and 
the hogs were eating it greedily, when the following dialogue took 
place: 

Teacher. — "Mr. Jones, why do you feed your hogs that way?" 

Farmer. — "What do you mean, professor? What other way is 
there to feed them ? ' ' 

Teacher. — "You are feeding them dry corn. It ought to be 
wet, and would be better if it were warm." 

Farmer. — "Don't the hogs seem to like the corn, and don't 
they seem to be fattening? It would give me a heap of trouble to 
always have the corn wet." 

Teacher. — "But, Mr. Jones, don't you know that it is a scien- 
tific fact that it takes twice as long to digest dry food as it does 
wet food?" 

Farmer. — "No, professor, I never heard of it before; but any- 
how, how much do you calculate that a hog's time is worth? " 

And, so, there are people who seem to think that a little child's 
time is worth nothing, and waste it by putting it in charge of a 
teacher without skill and inspiration. We forget that it is a man 



Anson Phelps Stokes. i47 

or woman's time we are wasting. Six or seven years of a child's 
life wasted means sixty or seventy years of effective manhood or 
womanhood wasted. Let us move forward with this educational 
revolution, aided by business men, clergymen, physicians, and 
other professional people of all classes, and make this country and 
this world what it ought to be by selecting for the seed-corn of our 
civilization, and by procuring it at any cost, the strongest, most 
generous, most far-sighted, and most cultured men and women that 
this world has in it to train the children of to-day to become the 
men and women of to-morrow. 

The President of the Conference: Now we want to step for 
a few moments into one of the great universities, and I shall now 
fulfil another one of my promises that another shall be heard from 
to-night by calling upon the Rev. Anson Phelps Stokes, Jr. , Secretary 
of Yale University. 

ANSON PHELPS STOKES. 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: I can see no reason 
why I, as a young man, should be called upon to say a few words 
here this evening, for I have simply come down into this Southland 
to see and to learn, not to teach. I am not a person of any dis- 
tinction whatsoever, unless it be that I realize that I am a person 
of no distinction, and that is in these days some distinction. 

To show you how little distinction I have, let me tell you a 
story. A few days before I left New Haven I received a letter 
from a firm that was publishing an annual entitled " Distinguished 
Americans," or with some similar title, enclosing a brief statement 
in regard to my life, giving the time and place of birth, and a few 
other facts. There was attached to this statement a note in the 
handwriting of the editor, saying, "You are not quite up to our 
standard, but if you will pay $io, we will see that this sketch is 
included in our publication." 

Now, ladies and gentlemen, I realize fully that I am not up 
to the standard, but I am so anxious, not to leave Birmingham, 
but to return to keep an engagement in New Haven on Sunday by 
Mr. Ogden's special train to-night, that I dared not refuse when he 
asked me only a few minutes ago to say a few words to you. 

You have perhaps heard the story of the Bishop of Pennsyl- 
vania; he was marrying a girl who was what we would call to-day 



148 The Conference for Edtication. 

"a new woman." She did not like the word "obey" in the mar- 
riage service, and you know that in the services according to the 
Book of Common Prayer, the minister uses the words "love, 
honor and obey," and the woman repeats the words after him. 
In this case the minister, the Bishop of Pennsylvania, said, "Love, 
honor and obey"; the new woman said, "Love and honor." The 
Bishop of Pennsylvania said, rather strenuously, "Love, honor 
and obey"; she said, "Love and honor." The bishop then turned 
sharply around and closed the prayer-book, and the woman said, 
"Love, honor and obey." When I came to the platform this even- 
ing and Mr. Ogden asked me if I would say a few words, I heard 
the door of Car A in our special train closing in my face unless I 
replied "Yes," and so there was only one thing to do. 

Now, ladies and gentlemen, I cannot begin to tell you how 
much I have enjoyed these Conferences. It seems to me that it was 
peculiarly fortunate that Alabama and Birmingham should have 
been chosen as the place where they were to be held. I cannot 
forget that this is the state which produced Dr. Curry, who, I doubt 
not, more than any man in this generation, has stirred up that 
splendid enthusiasm for education which we have seen here these 
past days. I cannot forget that this was the state which produced 
Mr. Graham. I cannot forget that this is the state of Mr. Murphy, 
I cannot forget that this is the state of that pure-minded, noble- 
souled woman, Mrs. Johnson, who has done so much to improve 
conditions in the institutions of this state. It seems to me, then, 
peculiarly appropriate that we should have met in Birmingham, 
and in Alabama, and if you ask me what is the thing that has im- 
pressed me most as I have listened to these addresses here, I would 
say without hesitation that it is the fact, that not only will the 
problems of the South be solved, but that the problems of the 
South are being solved, and that they will be and are being solved 
along the line of that noble oration with which we were greeted by 
Bishop Galloway on the first day of this Conference. The essence 
of that address seems to me to be the spirit of noblesse oblige on 
the part of those who have received and inherited the best of the 
culture and education of this old commonwealth. 

A few years ago, a friend from New England went to Russia 
with a companion. The friend died in Russia and the companion 
cabled hom.e regarding the death, and said that the body was being 



Anson Phelps Stokes. 149 

shipped over by steamer. The relatives went down to the pier in 
New York to receive the remains, brought them up to the New 
York residence, and to their great astonishment, found not the 
body of the New England lady, but of a Russian general in full 
uniform. They cabled over to the companion in Russia, telling 
what had happened, and the reply came back, "Don't return the 
Russian general, your aunt buried here with military honors." 
Now, my friends, the heroes of the South and of the North have 
been buried, and they have both been buried with military honors, 
and I hope and pray that the generals of the South and the generals 
of the North may not be returned, but that when generals are 
returned, they may always be generals of the United States, and 
they may return only when we meet in company shoulder to 
shoulder as defenders of our common liberty and institutions. 

There were a large number of Southern men in my class in 
Yale College, and we decided to plant as our class ivy a slip from 
the ivy on the grave of Robert E. Lee. The class decided without 
a dissenting vote that nothing could be more appropriate than that 
we forget the jealousies and envies and hatreds of the past, and 
that we all unite in doing honor to one whom no one could know 
in life or in history without honoring his character. The ivy was 
planted, but to our great distress a hot-headed son of the North 
pulled it up the day after. The class was indignant. The action 
did not express the judgment of a man in the class, and I dare say 
it did not express the judgment of one man of the 2500 men in the 
university, so our class has recently decided that when we 
return at decennial we shall plant two slips from two vines, the 
one a slip from the vine that is over the grave of General Grant,, 
the other a slip from the vine that is over the grave of General Lee, 
and the two vines will grow up together, intertwining on the walls 
of Yale. My friends, there should be, it seems to me, a spirit of 
unity, but there is something even better, more fundamental than 
uniting North and South, if any such uniting is now any longer 
necessary, and that is that each and all of us should unite in his 
own heart, a love for God and a human love for man. If we can 
all have growing up in our hearts the two ivys, one standing for 
the love of God, the other standing for the love of man, we may 
face the future fearlessly, and hopefully, knowing that nothing can 
in the future ever separate us. 



150 The Conference for Education. 

The President of the Conference: I wish now to introduce to 
you Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, of Cambridge, Mass. 

THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. 

Mr. Chairman, and Ladies and Gentlemen: As a man grows 
older he becomes accustomed to have his introduction more or less 
retrospective and often very remotely so. It often reminds me 
at least of a time when I was invited by a clergyman in my native 
town of Cambridge to meet at dinner a pair of young English 
authors, whose united age was not perhaps very far from mine. 
I found myself sitting at the lady's side, as we began our meal. 
As we took our first spoonful of soup, she looked up at me with 
that confiding and sympathetic confidence which does not always 
mark her nation, and remarked to me, " Isn't it rather a pity, don't 
you think, that all the really interesting Americans seem to be 
dead?" I had seldom known a living American to be placed at a 
greater disadvantage, and our whole conversation consisted in 
obituary notices of the deceased and apologies on my part that. 
I was not yet added to their number. 

I find myself not for the first time in the Southern states, and 
I welcome again the regions which I knew in my youth more or less. 
I had Southern cousins whose winter life on the plantation was 
dear to me, though not in this state, but in Virginia. Whenever 
I return here, it is with mingled recollections of peace and war, 
and also with recollections of that most interesting time ten years 
after the war, when I was sent to represent the New England 
states at the Cowpens celebration and was the guest of General 
Haygood, whom I had known on the opposite side at Port Royal. 
I found myself now also side by side with Wade Hampton, whose 
broad and gracious presence removed all that solicitude which my 
former friends had endeavored to impress on my mind as a signal 
of danger before I went away. It takes some time, as you know, 
to convince our female friends that war is over — as I came down 
here on this visit with a last parting word from a somewhat anxious 
relative, a cautious lady, who advised me above all things not to 
allow myself to be addressed by the title "Colonel," for if so no 
one could answer for my safety among those formidable Southern- 
ers ! 

When, however, I entered upon your streets yesterday and 



Thomas Wcntworth Higginson. 151 

saw some young Southern soldiers marching out from their ar- 
mory; and when I learned their immediate errand, I wished that I 
might have known of their destination in time that I might ask 
of them the privilege of joining their ranks, for that occasion only, 
and doing my share to honor the graves of the Confederate dead. 
There would have been nothing individual or unusual about this. 
It has been done more and more since the war by the living sol- 
diers of both armies, on their different memorial days^ and it is a 
pleasure to me to think that my first example in doing it came not 
from the white man, but from the voluntary action of my regiment 
of black soldiers, the first black regiment, if I may be allowed to 
remind you, enrolled in the Union army in 1862. Having to 
decorate the graves of the Union dead on a certain camp in South 
Carolina, my men voluntarily spread the decorations also over 
some Confederate graves that lay near them, and thus forgave 
both the jealousies of antagnostic soldiers and the long wrongs, 
as they thought them, of slavery. After that how could I have 
done less, and in view of such an act, may I not be pardoned if I 
say to-night what no one else has had occasion to say here, namely, 
a word to those of that colored race whom I see at a far distance 
in the upper gallery. I wish to say to those men, as one who has 
reason to know and trust them, that of all the classes in this com- 
munity who have reason to watch with interest the progress of 
these meetings, and to bless God for the result, they are the men 
who can least afford to be indifferent. They, at least, cannot 
afford to be otherwise than patient, when the very men who have 
worked hardest for their instruction, the very men who have put 
their hands in their pockets most deeply for their benefit, the very 
men who have, as I understand, doubled the amount raised for 
schools in Alabama, during the last few years, and largely for their 
good — when those men act and consult upon their affairs, those 
men can be trusted. I would say to you that during all these 
discussions, in all this urgent demand for a wider and costlier 
education, there never has been a word of distinction on this plat- 
form in regard to race or color as such, not a word. It has been 
a work for "the people." It has been "the young people of Ala- 
bama," the young people of this community, the student popula- 
tion as a whole, of whom they have talked. They have never 
made a distinction in regard to the appropriations to be sought or 



152 The Conference for Education. 

demanded, or in regard to their purpose to put through the claim 
of education for all the youths of the state here represented. 

The magnificent address which we heard last night from the 
Bishop of Mississippi took that comprehensive position firmly, and 
though I might object to some of his details, he met the main ques- 
tion, namely, education, so perfectly that it made his speech, it 
seems to me, not merely a speech before an evening audience, but 
before a state; indeed, not merely before a nation, but before 
posterity. Unless I make a mistake in my foresight, that speech 
of his will be put down in history as a distinct step in the progress 
of education in America. Give the whole people education and 
the other matters will settle themselves for the best under the 
Providence of God, sooner or later. 

One of the last things I did at home before coming away was 
to attend a meeting of a military club of which I have the honor 
to be an officer, the Loyal Legion. I took with me a Confederate 
officer of high rank, of whom I had something to tell my fellow 
Union officers there, that I knew would sweep all hearts by the 
mere mention, as it did. My guest had served in one of the most 
momentous battles of the Civil War, where he was chief on the 
staff of one of the two most renowned Confederate generals, and 
my companion had offered his life for his officer in a form I had 
never heard of in any other instance. Many a man has died for 
his chief officer, as he might have died at home for one he loved, 
but this was a different form of devotion. ■ In the midst of that 
battle, amid a storm of shot and shells, that beloved commander 
fell dead among them; they raised his dead body with difficulty, 
put him on a stretcher, and were bearing him from the field, when 
suddenly, by some increased impulse in the firing, the shot and the 
shells began falling so fast that it seemed as if this lifeless form 
upon the stretcher would be torn in pieces. The officer whom I 
introduced then threw himself on the body of his chief and lay 
across him so that, although he could not save that chief's living 
form from injury, he would protect his dead body from mutilation. 
He risked his own life, his home, his children, his hopes, everything,, 
to save merely the external form of that chief from mangling, and 
that chief was Stonewall Jackson. This officer, now a modest 
clergyman in Richmond, the Rev. Dr. Smith, was the man I pre- 
sented before that Loyal Legion, and who received a greeting such 



Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 153 

as I have never seen received by an officer of our own army, how- 
ever distinguished his services. In view of such facts as that, how 
can we help feehng that the war, as you, Mr. Chairman, suggested, 
is over and gone, that while its grief still touches us, its jealousies 
do not. Well may we say with one of your own Southern poets, 
Francis Finch: 

By the flow of the inland river, 

When the fleets of iron have fled, 
Where the blades of the grave grass quiver, 

Asleep are the ranks of the dead. 

Under the sod and the dew. 

Waiting the judgment day. 
Under the one the blue; 

Under the other the gray. 

From the silence of sorrowful hours, 

The desolate mourners go. 
Lovingly laden with flowers, 

Alike for the friend and the foe. 

Under the sod and the dew, 

Waiting the judgment day, 
Under the rose the blue, 

Under the lily the gray. 

No more shall the warcry sever, 

Or the winding rivers be red; 
They banish our anger forever 

When they laurel the graves of our dead. 

Under the sod and the dew, 

Waiting the judgment day. 
Love and tears for the blue. 

Tears and love for the gray. 

The President of the Conference: I now recur to the regular 
order of the program for this evening, and I beg leave to introduce 
the first of the appointed speakers, Mr. John Graham Brooks, of 
Cambridge, Mass. Mr. Brooks has been asked to speak to us on 
"The North and the South in the Conference for Education." 



154 The Conference for Education. 

JOHN GRAHAM BROOKS. 

The topic assigned to me recalls a definition by that subtle and 
admirable Belgian writer, Maurice Maeterlinck. It is his descrip- 
tion of hell. "Hell," he says "is the state of infinite misunder- 
standing." 

There are probably few of us who have not experienced partial 
and temporary hells through very petty misunderstandings; mis- 
understandings with friends, neighbors or kindred closer still. 
The worst of it was not the heartache or bitterness, but the out- 
right clumsy injustice to others that such misunderstandings so 
often entail. 

Our Commissioner of Education in Porto Rico, just now in 
this country, said at the Twentieth Century Club, in Boston, a few 
days ago : ' ' Our chief perplexities and difficulties in the new work 
of our government in Porto Rico come from our misunderstandings 
with the people there. We mean to bring six hundred of them 
here this summer to help remove some of these embarrassments." 

The class misunderstanding in much of our Northern labor 
question at the present moment has altogether too much hell in 
it. One chief element in the long tragedy of injustice toward our 
native Indians is that until very recently we never even tried to 
understand them through the moving forces of their traditions and 
thus get their point of view. 

The honest attempt really to understand religious periods, 
peoples, situations differing from our own, is the very mint-mark 
of good intelligence and good morals. I do not know any attempt 
that has in it more hope or more promise. 

We have won religious toleration only about so far as we have 
been at pains to understand phases of religion differing from our 
own. 

One of the highest American officials in China, after thirty 
years' residence, told me he had always believed in the work there 
of our Christian missionaries, but, he added, as long as they mis- 
understand the Chinese they fail in their mission. Until they get 
the sympathy which comes from knowing the Chinese character 
and what is good in their religion, our missionaries accomplish 
nothing. Their work for good dates from the time when the mis- 
sionary sees that he has about as much to learn as he has to teach. 



John Graham Brooks. 155 

Such political toleration as we have won has been gained in 
no other way. One is sure, then, in saying of these Conferences that 
they offer the possibility and the conditions of learning and of 
understanding upon which common sympathies and toleration 
depend. 

In trying to throw light on the educational benefits of these 
Conferences one's truest word is likely to be from his own experi- 
ence. At least one's estimate should begin there. Most of us, 
after some reflection, could tell with considerable definiteness how 
these gatherings had softened, deepened and broadened our opin- 
ions on the greater issues which these conferences raise. 

If we first gave general statement to these mental changes it 
would be doubtless in some such form as this from those of us who 
come from the North : "In the eye to eye and heart to heart 
contact which these meetings make possible we so far live into 
the Southern point of view as to get from it so much intellectual 
sympathy that we can at least understand it." 

To understand with sympathy points of view differing from 
our own is the beginning of all hopeful work, which as citizens of 
one country we have to do together, and it seems to me of utmost 
importance to remember that the amount and variety of work 
which we have to do together steadily increases. As the nation 
grows more compact; as it is year by year bound more closely, part 
to part, by all sorts of electrical and transportation agencies, we 
shall have as a nation more problems that all of us must work out 
in common. 

Of all educational problems this is supremely true. If I wanted 
to do the North the best service known to me, I should take the 
Hampton and Tuskegee kind of education and scatter it through 
every state north of Mason and Dixon's line. Your need of this 
is also our need. In nothing will the North and South win a spirit 
of sustaining fellowship and good-will more surely than in meeting 
together these common needs. 

If I wished to try my hand at a definition of real civilization, 
I should say that it consisted in that largeness of spirit that can 
sink once for all every merely narrow, sectional feeling out of sight, 
and act greatly and generously for the nation's welfare. 

These Conferences enlarge and deepen this spirit in us every 
time we meet. 



156 The Conference for Education. 

Some years ago I went into the home of one of your honored 
soldiers. The gracious lady of the house met me with the charm 
of a perfect hospitality, but said: "A few years ago, if I had 
known you came from Massachusetts, I should not have felt quite 
like speaking to you, but I have been up there among your people 
and found just the same good folks I have lived among down here 
all my life." Only a journey of a few weeks and a score or two of 
conversations and the temper and attitude were changed. You 
will believe me when I say that it pleased me to hear her add: 
"Don't think that I am one whit less a Southern woman than I 
was before. I only feel differently about the North." No guest 
of Mr. Ogden ever came South without being enriched by this same 
experience. I would not put the indignity upon any Southern 
audience of assuming that you would be pleased to hear from a 
Northerner: "Oh, I have changed all my opinions, and now think 
as you do on all these social and educational questions." You 
would, I trust, mark down that man as a pretty poor creature. If 
we are worth our salt as citizens, we do not shake ourselves empty 
of all our traditions and behefs quite so easily as that. The man- 
hood of North and South ahke will hold him in honor to whom 
everv honest opinion is a sacred possession. 

When Chancellor Hill of Georgia, last winter, in New York, 
read to his Northern audience some telling evidence of the early 
frailties and bigotries in Massachusetts, he was not only roundly 
applauded for it, but honored. It was done in a largeness of spirit 
which disarmed unfriendly criticism. He stood by his colors, and 
we liked him the better for it. On the other hand, I was once 
present in a Northern city when a speech was made bristling with 
hostile criticism of the South and a man of Southern birth and 
training followed, saying that he agreed with every sentence of it. 
The audience showed plainly that it did not think well of him for 
this. He would have been better hked if he had yielded less. 

If, then, I should state in a word what most precious result 
of these Conferences I have myself received, I should put it thus: 
They have given me at least so much insight into the reasons why 
and in what the South differs from the North, that I feel perfectly 
safe and free in talking with my Southern friends with absolute 
straightness, openness and truthfulness about every phase of the 



John Graham Brooks. 157 

question known to me. When we can talk together with fearless 
candor, we can act together with generous confidence. 

But I should acquit myself very ill here, if I left this so ex- 
clusively personal. I have talked with many of the guests who 
from year to year have come to these conferences. I want to make 
the briefest summary of this testimony consistent with veracity. 
I am going to quote very frankly opinions that have been expressed 
to me, and I should add that they are not in the least exceptional 
opinions. If I were to do my best to state in the fewest words what 
I believe to be the deepest and most common feeling among your 
Northern guests, I should say: They come down here with a good 
deal of genuine humility about the greater questions with which 
we deal. They do not come with critical cocksureness to set you 
right. I do not know one who does not come honestly admitting 
that he has a good deal more to learn than he has to teach, and 
very especially is this true after their first journey to the South. 
If there is ever any blindness of infallibility it is on the first trip, 
but a single week is enough to shame it out of one. 

I have often thought that I should like a truthful report of 
dozens of conversations I have heard, as we were returning to the 
North; generous confessions of sympathy with you, upon whom 
the heaviest burden of these problems fall; admiration for the sac- 
rifices you have made, and eagerness, upon their return, to spread 
among Northern friends and neighbors all that kind of information 
which is best calculated to lessen misunderstanding and increase 
sympathetic co-operation. Many of you have told me that you 
have certain papers and certain politicians in the South whose 
extreme utterances constitute perhaps the chief difficulty in that 
cordial understanding upon which the best national work depends. 
Well, in the North we are punished and plagued by the same dis- 
ease. But some poHticians and some papers there have had very 
definite instruction about truth and decency from Mr. Ogden's 
guests, who are not without influence in their communities. 

One lady tells me: "The Conferences, among other enlighten- 
ments, have led me to seek out and read the best Southern htera- 
ture upon these questions; books Hke those of Thomas Nelson Page, 
and Miss Glasgow's ' Battleground,' and I make my friends read 
them. Even books representing still stronger medicine I urge those 
to read who have known little of the evil side of the Reconstruction 



158 The Conference for Education. 

period." A large number of these books have been put into library 
and club circulation as a direct result of these Southern visits. 
Another witness says: "It was absolutely unknown to me until I 
went South how much and how honestly the Southerners care for 
the negro, i. e., the way in which they care for him." Another 
adds : " I had no conception how hard they at the South were working 
at the educational problem, including the education of the negro." 

Practically all agree that the peculiar difficulties and the per- 
plexities of the problem had to be chiefly learned here among you. 
One says, "I never, of course, believed that the North could do 
anything except help the South, but I have learned there how much 
more of a Southern problem it is than I have ever thought." May 
I add at this point several Southern opinions which I can put into^ 
the same sentence. "The Conferences have taught me why and 
how absolutely it is not a sectional, not merely a Southern, but a 
national problem." This stirring note of nationality rings clear 
and distinct in a score of Southern addresses, and thus upon that 
higher ground of a common sympathy and a common devotion 
Southern and Northern opinion meets in these Conferences. 

A wise and kindly Southerner tells me: "Until I came to one 
of these Conferences I had a secret pleasure in all the bad things 
I heard about the North ; now only the good things I hear will give 
me pleasure. I see that it is as bad to have ills happen in the 
North as in the South." 

Another Southerner gives me this cheering opinion: "Every 
year as the Conference closes I go away with stronger hope. The 
more we get done for education, the less I fear the difficulties 
ahead." 

Many of us have noted that the genuine cynic and pessimist 
about the education of the democracy is rarely the man hard at 
work at the problem. 

To organize workers in a good cause is, at the same time, to 
create an atmosphere of hope. An old definition of a pessimist 
runs thus, A pessimist is a man who, when two evils are presented 
to him to choose between, takes both of them. But this passion 
for all the evils in sight is almost never the affliction of one who is 
absorbed in any positive and constructive social work. 

We often quote the dear old lady who said : " I have had many 
troubles in my life, but most of them never happened." And I 



JoJui Graham Brooks. 159 

knew a doctor who said that the hardest patients he ever had to 
cure were those that had nothing the matter with them. 

Let me speak frankly about one kind of practical pessimist, 
who is not only on the watch for both evils, but for a lot of evils 
that never will happen. We have them in the North, you have 
them in the South. It is that variety of political demagogue who 
sees his personal advantage in exaggerating every point of differ- 
ence between North and South, turgidly overstating every sectional 
jealousy and every political antagonism. This has always been 
the devil's own way of keeping evil things alive in this world. 
Against no common nuisance do we more need to be on our 
guard. 

There is an old story of two boon companions doing their zig- 
zag best to get home after an evening in the tap-room. They fall 
out on the way and begin a boozy altercation, which ends in one 
turning his back upon the other, who says to him: "You needn't 
turn your back on me; that don't do any good, because you are 
drunk all through." Well, these demagogues are bad all through, 
and should not fool us, much less direct our attention from the main 
work of constructive educational betterment. 

There are personal as well as national quarrels so old that the 
only fitting treatment is to bury them decently, but thoroughly. 
There is a quaint medieval legend of one of the mystery plays in 
which the Almighty was rather too familiarly represented upon 
the stage, though it was not thought to be blasphemous in those 
days. In one of these an oldish man, who is still harping on a 
quarrel in his youth, meets the Lord, who says to him: "My child, 
I have a word of counsel for you. You had a sorry wrangle many 
years ago. That was bad, but it was not half so bad as never to 
forget it." "But how," said the man, "can I forget it?" The 
Lord replied, "Nothing is easier. Begin to reckon up the good 
quality in all the people you have to do with. Every good trait 
you note down will weaken a little your bitter memory, and when 
your list of good traits reaches the number of years in a genera- 
tion your mind will be so full of good that evil memories will have 
lost all their power over you." 

This leads to my last witness, who gives a tribute that seems 
to me very precious. " Before I came South my mind was filled 
rather with the points upon which the North and South are likely 



i6o The Conference for Education. 

to differ. Every Conference has helped to change that. Those 
points of disagreement have steadily sunk into the background, 
and more and more prominently have come into my mind the 
points of agreement. Now, almost instinctively, I try to find, not 
how we differ or what separates us, but what it is that unites us in 
the common work of making our whole national life strong and 
safe." 

I wonder if one could express in fitter phrase the deeper faiths 
at the heart of this Conference work. Ours is an increasing pur- 
pose to find those ways along which with the knitted strength of 
all together. North, South, East, and West, we may as one peo- 
ple, carry on the highest, hardest task given to the new century of 
education, so that our national life and will may become not only 
strong and safe, but humane and just. 

The President of the Conference : I now take pleasure in intro- 
ducing Dr. S. C. Mitchell, professor in Richmond College, Rich- 
mond, Virginia; who will speak to us on "The Present Situation 
in the South." 

S. C. MITCHELL. 

Since the last meeting of this Conference certain alignments in 
the South have become definite; cleavages have become clear; 
tendencies have become personified. Certain forces, hitherto apolo- 
getic, if not secretive, have come boldly to the front. A year ago 
Southern opinion was still in solution; since then it has been pre- 
cipitated. What was once deemed the radical notion of an irre- 
sponsible person here and there has recently headed up in public 
addresses, state elections, and representative officials. Yesterday 
we were all moving together as a mass down the highroad, no one 
knowing exactly whither; to-day we stand at the parting of the 
ways. Facing thus the forks of the road, as Hercules of old, let us 
listen to the alluring spirits that would fain tempt us to take this 
or that prong. Whither do these ways diverge? What of the paths 
and their reputed destinations ? The answer to these questions will 
perhaps best show the tremendous significance of the present edu- 
cational campaign. 

Vardamanism is a new word for an old thing. Issues are never 
clear until they become concrete, become embodied in a person. 
Vardamanism has grasped the helm in Mississippi. Explanations 



5. C. Mitchell. i6i 

and extenuating circumstances, I am aware, are offered to account 
for his ascendency; but, brushing these aside lor the moment, it 
remains true that Major Vardaman is the governor of my native 
state. Not only so, but Vardamanism may be expected to make 
its appearance in each of the Southern states in turn. Indeed, in 
some ot them it is already present in considerable strength. Witness 
Senator Gorman in Maryland, Senator Tillman in South Carolina, 
and Mr. John Temple Graves in Georgia. And furthermore, in the 
fulness of time these widely diffused forces may come to a head in 
some man of Titanic personality; some man combining with precise 
purpose, deep conviction, and firm will, the fanatic zeal of a Peter 
the Hermit; a man who will force the race issue to the front and 
who will give national adhesion and crusading fervor to his follow- 
ers. When this electric connection is completed between the re- 
actionary forces in each of the Southern states, when this Alaric 
has appeared, then "the hurly-burly's done." 

You will not, I am sure, misunderstand my use of the names 
of these gentlemen. I do so simply to abbreviate and make con- 
crete the definition of the tendency to which I refer. These names 
have for me no more personal feeling than do the algebraic x, y, z, 
to the mind of the mathematician. They stand for an attitude of 
mind toward the supreme question of racial adjustment in the 
South. Each of them would, no doubt, differentiate his own po- 
sition; one holding the policy of disfranchisement, another the 
policy pf ignorance, another the policy of deportation, and still 
another the policy of extermination. Differ, however, as these 
men may in method, yet they would all alike deny the negro educa- 
tion and in general repress him. In essence, they deny not so much 
that they are their brother's keeper as that they are their brother's 
brother. Under no circumstances would I misrepresent the position 
of these Southern leaders; for leaders they are, and I have no dis- 
position to understate their influence upon the public mind nor the 
integrity of character upon which such influence may be based. 
But enough of characterization, for in this case there is no need to 
ask, "What's in a name?" 

These gentlemen stand for something, for something clear-cut, for 
something that appeals to racial instincts, sectional prejudices and 
partizan passions. That there are potential forces back of these 
men, no one can doubt. The import of the burning of human 



i62 The Confer ence for Education. 

beings, even women, calls for no commentary. The ghastly acts 
of too many mobs, both North and South, disclose the hidden 
magazines of passion that may some day be fired by a single spark. 
A spark! We may rather surely count upon the advent of a fire- 
brand. When once these harsh and heartless purposes become 
embodied in such an Alaric, then you have the rudiments of a 
situation from which my mind instinctively turns away. Then 
will be the reign of the rifle, rope and stake. Heaven avert such a 
doom! But both courage and prudence dictate that we shall face 
the facts without either blushing or blanching. Forewarned is fore- 
armed. "Sire," said Turgot prophetically to Louis XVI, even 
seventeen years before the fall of the fatal knife; "Sire," it was 
weakness that brought the head of Charles I to the block." 

Of course, I acquit these gentlemen wholly of any motive to 
bring about the results thus boded. They act from patriotic 
motives. They would give their lives as quickly as you or I to 
serve their country. Yet they seem to be under the influence 
of a ruling passion. The essential difference between these diver- 
gent forces lies rather in temperament, judgment, prophetic instinct — 
a difference in spirit rather than statecraft. They have confidence 
in might ; we have confidence in right. They trust to coercion ; we 
trust to growth. They feel only the superiority of the Saxon. We, 
recognizing the responsibility which this fact implies, feel the more 
keenly the spirit of service. They act from motives of self-pres- 
ervation; we insist that you cannot save the soul unless you save 
society that environs the soul. They find the warrant for their 
course in the manifest destiny of the Saxon ; we, in the ineradicable 
sense of human brotherhood. 

From even this brief parley, we may confidently expect that 
the inquiring Hercules will not take this road. "Whither," he 
asks, "does the other fork lead, and what the chances attending 
it?" 

This is the road of racial adjustment through sympathy, intelli- 
gence and mutual helpfulness. Knowing that the negro is human, 
we believe that he is improvable. Knowing the resourcefulness of 
the Saxon, we believe that his sagacity and sense of justice will 
enable him to cope successfully with even this crucial situation. The 
challenge to the Saxon, as to Queen Esther, is, "Who knoweth 
whether thou art not come to the kingdom for such a time as this? " 



5. C. Mitchell. 163 

The final issue lies in the relative strength of these two forces. 
Need I call the roll of the forces on the side of conciliation and 
progress? Forces which are impressively represented by this 
gathering, forces which find expression in the educational revival 
now taking place in each of the Southern States, forces which are 
led by such statesmen as Governor Montague of Virginia, Governor 
Aycock of North Carolina, and Governor Frazier of Tennessee. 

The destiny of the South, aye, of the nation, is in the balance. 
Which of the two groups is the stronger? To whom is the ultimate 
triumph? By evolution we can prevent revolution. Danger lurks 
in indifference, in ultra-conservatism, in reaction. What reserves 
of power can we summon against reaction ? I answer, the 
people. Bom in the blackest of the black belt* living my entire 
life in the bosom of the South; loving my people with a devotion 
second to that of no Southerner; loyal to all that is good and beau- 
tiful in the traditions of the South, in whose cause my father 
battled under General Forrest, I can say with unfaltering confi- 
dence that the better judgment of the South revolts from these 
harsh and heartless proposals of reaction. The Southern people are 
friendly to the negro; they know his strength as well as his weak- 
ness ; they wish to do well by him in spite of difficulties ; they are 
nerved in this high resolve by a sense of responsibility for his 
presence here, by a consciousness of superiority which is touched 
by the appeal of the weaker party, by a knowledge that a wrong 
done reacts upon the doer, by a chivalry that befriends the friend- 
less, and finally by the stirrings of a divine instinct which trusts 
implicitly to the triumph of life and love. "Love never faileth." 

The sole reliance, then, is the nobler purposes of our people. 
How can we energize these purposes? I answer, in three wa^^s: 
(i) The church, (2) the press, (3) the school. A word as to each 
of these. 

Happily, the religious spirit is strong in the South. The church 
is to the community what the hearth is to the home. Denomina- 
tional zeal is quick. The Southern preacher is well known in every 
good word and work. Here are potential forces. May we not 
expect that these powerful denominations will come to see that 
their chief home-mission work is to moralize the nine millions of 
blacks dwelling among us and affecting our every vital interest? To 
this near and necessary task we must persuade the home-mission 



164 The Conference for Education. 

societies to give the major portion ot their strength, bringing to 
this work the trained sagacity of the speciahst and the treasured 
experience of the statesman. I look for tremendous results from 
renewed endeavor for the religious betterment of the blacks. To 
this end plans are already forming, as we know, in certain influ- 
ential religious bodies. 

The press of the South is guided by generous impulses. It has 
struggled under an obscurantism that would have blurred the 
vision of men less endowed. To-day the press is giving forth no 
uncertain sound. It craves a larger freedom, which it will be 
accorded It is conservative, as the delicate status of our dearest 
liberties demanded that it should be. But it is backed by that 
Saxon spirit of fair play, and has wrought marvelously for the 
furtherance of the present educational revival. In the future an 
even more aggressive leadership may be expected from the press 
in its earnest contention for what are deemed to be the best interests 
of the South and of the nation. Many an editor in the South has, 
during these trying times, shown a spirit of quiet heroism and 
faith that is only the more effective because not insistent of its own 
merit. 

It is, however, to the school, the common school, that we must 
look for the main leverage to uplift the masses of our people in this, 
democracy. It is to be noted that the South makes a new demand 
of the school. Elsewhere you seek through it economic efficiency 
and political character. But the school in the South must furnish 
forces that will conduce to racial adjustment as well as to econo- 
mic efficiency and political character. All of these ends are im- 
portant, but racial adjustment is the deeper nerve of Southern 
Hfe. 

Since the close of Monroe's administration politics has not been 
the chief concern of the South. The initial energy of the South in 
the national cause began then to exhaust itself. The change in 
Calhoun's attitude from nationalization to nullification, which took 
place about 1825, marks an epoch in the history of America, for 
the transit of Calhoun's mind was due not so much to the idios}^- 
crasies of a particular thinker as to the exigencies of the Southern 
situation, which was just then beginning to be clearly discerned. 
The fog had lifted — or settled, if you prefer. The reason for the 
altered attitude toward national destiny is not far to seek. The 



5. C. Mitchell. 165 

South found itself holding the wolf by the ear, and in such a predica- 
ment had to forego any thought for less critical concerns. Every 
subsequent activity upon the part of the South has to be inter- 
preted in the light of this impelling motive. Locked in the embrace 
of slavery, with its attendant problems, the South could not give 
due heed to either economic or political questions. In the increas- 
ing stress of the storm, mast and even helm were no longer thought 
of. 

The Missouri compromises, nulhfication in South Carolina, the 
annexation of Texas, the Mexican War, the Confederacy, recently 
amended constitutions, all these typical issues show that the artery 
of Southern life has been racial. Political and economic bearing 
these issues have had, I grant you, but in their exciting cause they 
are the outcome of the existence upon the same soil of two races 
unlike and difficult of adjustment. In the presence of this frowning 
Pharaoh, race identity has, like Aaron's serpent-rod, swallowed up 
all other issues. Politics in this section since 1825 has been only 
the surface play; the undercurrent, often uncontrollable, has always 
been racial. The South is not so much partizan as unpolitical. 
We have factions based upon personalities; we have no separate 
parties based upon principles, either political or economic. Our 
leaders see and deplore this fact, even yearn for the advent of a 
respectable opposition party. Where there is only one debater, 
there can be no discussion; yet democracy is only government by 
discussion. 

The isolation of the South from national affairs grows out of 
its engrossment in the intense racial predicament in which destiny 
has involved it. Outside activities have had to be abandoned in 
the dire appeal of her own children. It is the mother heart of 
Rachel weeping for her own. 

If, then, the nation wishes to set free the energies of the South, 
to develop, in behalf of all, the resources of this section; to restore 
the South to a rightful share in the political lite of the whole country; 
to recover the advantage of the co-operation of these millions of 
pure Anglo-Saxon minds with political instincts strong, sound, and 
sagacious; to call up at this juncture the reserves of the South 
and wheel them into the forming line of the world's advance, it is 
necessary to hear sympathetically this cry of Rachel, to release the 
tension of her mother heart, to bring succor to white and black in 



1 66 The Conference for Education. 

their mutual struggle to rise to higher levels of life through popular 
enlightenment, industrial progress, and righteous racial adjust- 
ments. 

National aid — strictly through the agency of the state — to 
elementary education, is the enginery that must speedily be called 
into play. National aid to education was heartily favored by Dr. 
J. L. M. Curry, of honored memory. The national government now 
aids education in the states through the A. and M. colleges, such 
as the Virginia Polytechnic, at Blacksburg. Paternalism in a 
monarchy is fraternalism in a democracy. In the dense shadow 
of overhanging ignorance certain it is that no plant can grow with 
full vigor. The one thing is to get rid of that stunting shade. Give 
the South only sunshine, rift by kindly rays of light the cloud of 
illiteracy and racial suspicion, and her people will advance by leaps 
and bounds in all the elements of progress and power; for these 
Saxons are inherently noble, capable and responsive to the highest 
ideals of civic virtue. 

The marvelous thing to-day is not that Mississippi has grown 
restive under the burden of duplicate schools, but that she has had 
the heroism to bear so long the burden under these hard conditions. 
In Mississippi only 41.3 per cent, of the population is white. This 
minority has had to furnish capital, initiative, brains and conscience 
for the whole mass. The strain, accordingly, upon their resources 
in maintaining the higher life of the state has been appalling. All 
honor to those noble men for standing to their post thus far, in 
their superb self-reliance even rejecting the suggestion of outside 
aid. But there is a limit to human endeavor. And only the sympa- 
thetic co-operation of the nation can bring relief to a situation 
that is well-nigh intolerable. Can we in such a crisis halt at con- 
stitutional quibbles, when the civilization of the South is at stake? 
If it was right to use the national arm to free the slave and to clothe 
him with citizenship, surely it is right to use the same hand to fit 
him for civic efficiency. Freedom then, fitness now. Adopt what 
order you may, fitness is as imperative as freedom. Without this, 
freedom itself is a delusion to the negro and a menace to the white 
man. 

The North gained by the tonic effect of the moral appeal in 
behalf of the abolition of slavery. This, as regards the South, has 
been offset in part by the mellowing influence of defeat. There is 



Davis Scssuins. 167 

an active element in suffering. Forty years of suffering cannot 
count for naught. In the silent reserve, in the heroic patience, in 
the deep consciousness of a wish to do right, however confused the 
way, the South has found compensations. Yet I cannot resist the 
belief that in the appeal of the negro's weakness to our strength 
the white people of the South have a challenge given our fortitude, 
magnanimity, spirit of self-denial and sense of justice which puts 
us on our mettle. There are two tests of strength: the one, to 
push down; the other, to pull up. Let us try the latter. If we 
prove equal to this task, in the very process of its achievement, we 
shall pass through a divine discipline and development that may 
form a signal page in history. " Faith and hope belong to man as 
creature; love constitutes his likeness to God." 

The President of the Conference: 

And now we will hear from the Rt. Rev. Davis Sessums, D.D., 
of Louisiana, some of his impressions of this Conference for Educa- 
tion. It is a privilege to be able to introduce him to this audience. 

BISHOP SESSUMS. 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: By the benevolent 
gleam of Mr. Ogden's presidential eye, when he bids me give some 
impressions of the Conference and emphasizes the word "some," I 
see that he believes me to be favorably impressed, and yet suggests 
a warning that I shall give a few pages and not a whole volume of 
reflections. He is obviously aware that it would be a perilous 
liberty, at this hour of the night, to permit a speaker to range at 
will and to his fill upon the rich pastures presented in these dis- 
cussions; but, despite his warning, I am still hopeful that he does 
not mistake me for a certain political speaker erstwhile widely 
famed — concerning whom it was said that he was a stream both 
narrow and winding, forty miles long and just ^]4 inches deep. |l 
am reminded of the Arkansas farmer who sat at eventide at his 
cabin door, clasping affectionately in a hand none too skilled his 
trusty violin. A traveler saluted him, and skeptically said: "My 
friend, can you play the fiddle?" "Well, anyhow," said the farmer, 
"I guess I can pick out a few symptoms of old Dan Tucker!" 

My duty, therefore, is to pick out a few symptoms; and before 
I proceed to try to do so I beg the indulgence of the members of 



1 68 The Conference for Education. 

the Conference, and of those who have already spoken, on ground 
somewhat similar to those advanced by a professor who was to 
have the last word at a banquet given in honor of a revered eccle- 
siastic. The latter had delivered his message and seemed about 
to depart; but the professor, alarmed at his waning opportunity, 
modestly remonstrated, saying, "My dear doctor, please do not go; 
I shall not speak long, and my speech will not be very important, 
but will consist mostly of quotations from your writings." 

Unlike the professor, however, I feel that my utterance has im- 
portance beyond itself because it is prompted by and built upon the 
material provided by representative educational leaders — material 
which has abiding value and is strong to advance the great cause with 
which this Conference is concerned. These discussions are too fresh 
and vivid in the memory of this audience to require that I should 
rehearse them in detail, even if time sufficed. In manifold form 
and by eloquent voices the story has been told of this determined 
campaign for education and stirring recitals have been delivered of 
ne'eds remaining to be fulfilled and of progress already achieved — a 
progress attested by growth of public sentiment, by increased 
taxation for education, by schools erected, equipped and adorned. 
But while hindered from any length of detail, and omitting much 
that will be treasured in remembrance, I would instance first 
amongst the impressions which must be proclaimed the fact that 
this Conference possesses a very remarkable presiding officer, and 
that the audience owes him gratitude for strong and luminous pre- 
sentation of the purposes of the Conference and for tactful felicity 
of speech and action. We recognize in Mr. Ogden that unusual 
mingling of practical force and idealism which is an essential 
requirement for leadership in the movement represented by this 
Conference and in the work undertaken by the Southern Education 
Board. Mr. Bush, who was the graceful spokesman of the city of 
Birmingham, in extending welcome to the Conference, declared 
that the people of this city, however active and absorbed, they may 
be in the work of industrial development, are not merely busy 
with commerce and are not ambitious simply for phenomenal 
material prosperity. Surely, this declaration will receive our unan- 
imous assent — and testimony to its truth is found not only in 
the abounding hospitality which the citizens of Birmingham have 
displayed in their entertainment of the Conference, but also in 



Davis Sessums. 169 

the magnitude of the audiences which have attended its sessions 
and in the enthusiasm with which they have followed the various 
discussions. Abundant further evidence of the interest of this city 
in the work of mental and moral progress could undoubtedly be 
presented, if time permitted, in the history of its schools and its 
religious and philanthropic institutions; and I would utter for it 
the wish that its iron hills may abide for it as strong foundations 
of continuing prosperity, and that its wealth, in fulfilment of its 
highest ideals, may increasingly be transmuted into forces which 
will advance the causes of culture and religion. 

We shall remember gratefully the fine eloquence of Bishop 
Galloway — thanking him for his interpretation of race questions 
from the Southern view, for his condemnation of lawlessness and 
his vindication of the majesty and impartiality of the law, for his 
refutation of the policy which proposes to limit the educational 
expenditure for negroes to the taxes paid by that race for that 
purpose ; for his wise and just insistence upon primary and indus- 
trial education for the negro race and upon higher education for 
the equipment of negro teachers. In the presentation of reports 
from the field, as delivered by the superintendents of education 
in various states, there appears a striking realization of the useful- 
ness of the Conference in bringing together independent leaders, 
with a view to mutual helpfulness and in order to unite them in 
concerted effort to stimulate and arouse public interest and activity 
in a great common cause ; and these reports, as well as the addresses 
on especial subjects by appointed speakers, constitute a body of 
important facts and valuable thought concerning which the time 
suffices for me to name only a few particulars. 

Mr. Hill, the State Superintendent of Education in Alabama, 
besides presenting a record of progress, contrasted the expenditure 
in support of officers of the law with that made for teachers, and 
cited the inferiority of school-houses to court-houses and jails in 
rural counties as further illustrating defective realization of the 
power and value of education. This suggestion of the more ample 
support which society gives to the agencies charged with the pun- 
ishment of wrong-doing than to those concerned with the positive 
development of character applies elsewhere than to the community 
which the speaker represented. This disproportion, whenever it 
occurs, is just one of the signs that society in various directions 



lyo The Conference for Education. 

still interprets itself mainly as a system of police and protection 
rather than as a system which seeks the goal of unselfishness and 
co-operation, and that it does not yet see, even from the standpoint 
of protection, the paramount significance of the forces of religion 
and education which aim to lift men into righteousness and brother- 
hood and out of the lawlessness which requires punishment. The 
power and invincibleness of the law, the inevitableness of punish- 
ment upon wrong, must necessarily be maintained through the 
agencies of judgment and justice until society reaches an ideal 
state, and the court-house and penitentiary must continue to have 
their function. But, however much society may be protected and 
to whatever extent its stability may be secured by these instru- 
mentalities of punishment, it still remains true that a far vaster 
power in maintaining the social order is the progressive education 
of men into that state of conscience which voluntarily refrains and 
is self -restrained from wrong and injury to their fellow-beings ; and 
it is this developing influence of education and religion which can 
alone lead mankind even beyond the avoidance of wrong and into 
the actual practice of social righteousness, and steadily lessen the 
need of methods and institutions of repression and penalty. There- 
fore, let not only the certainty and terror of the law be visibly 
embodied and adequately pressed upon the vision of the community, 
but let the beauty and inspiration and magnetic power of truth 
and goodness also receive their just visible embodiment; let the 
instrumentalities of education constitute an environment and im- 
pulse under which the youth of the land will be stirred to gratitude 
for the inheritance of wisdom and virtue which they have received 
from the great historic leaders, be fired with pure ambition to direct 
their own toil to the world's welfare, be lifted out of self-seeking 
into the enthusiasm of social service, be strengthened to labor and 
to pray for a social order where duties shall be more precious to 
men than rights, and yet where all rights shall be fulfilled under 
the prevailing law of love. 

From Mr. Mynders, State Superintendent of Education in 
Tennessee, we learn that local taxation obtains in every county, 
save one, in that state, and Superintendent Whitfield reports that 
in Mississippi the tax for education amounts to one per cent, of all 
property. In South Carolina, according to Superintendent Martin, 
a movement to equip rural schools with libraries has proceeded with 



Davis Sessums. 171 

gratifying success, and a tax for education has even been placed 
on dogs. 

Mr. Aswell, who has recently been elected Superintendent of 
Education in Louisiana and will undoubtedly receive strong co- 
operation from a new state administration which will specially 
champion the public schools, brings encouraging account of edu- 
cational progress in that state, with hopeful anticipations of large 
development in the near future ; and his fellow-citizens are confi- 
dent that h\<i own able leadership will greatly contribute to the 
realization of these hopes. Dr. Alderman, president of Tulane 
University, New Orleans, whose humor is as unfailing as his oratory 
is splendid with beauty and electric force, brought a further message 
from Louisiana and reported that within the last two years appro- 
priations to the public schools had increased by one million dollars. 
Dr. Mclver's earnest plea for a worthier wage to the common-school 
worker, so that the ablest teachers may be drawn into and can 
afford to identify themselves with the system of public education, 
deserved a hearing far and wide; and Dr. Dabney's plea for the 
extension of greater educational opportunities to the mountaineer 
race was a stirring missionary utterance, basing the claims of that 
people upon their native powers and the contribution of noble 
manhood which they have already made to the life and history of 
the nation. Dr. Smith, of the University of North Carolina, made 
a memorable interpretation of the ages of greatest industrial devel- 
opment as being also the ages of greatest literary development; 
justifying the hopeful view that material progress need not degen- 
erate into materialism, and that the law which has heretofore 
operated the twofold expression of national life in industrial and 
literary activities will still in the future bind together practical and 
intellectual expansion. 

Dr. Page, in setting forth the economic value of practical 
training, presented not a new declaration of independence, but a 
declaration of the duties and responsibilities resting especially upon 
Southern youth, powerfully urging them to preserve the noble 
memories and true ideals of the past, yet so to equip themselves for 
the conditions and tasks of the present as to hasten the return to 
the South of its natural and full share in the leadership of the 
nation. 

Necessarily limited by the time at my disposal to these few 



172 The Conference for Education. 

gleanings from the rich material provided by the speakers named, 
I regret also to be hindered even from briefly recalling particulars 
of the admirable addresses delivered by Dr. Frissell, Dr. Henne- 
man, Dr. Mitchell, Dr. Hill, Mr. Bowie and Dr. Brooks, while 
matters of interest in the impromptu speeches must likewise be 
omitted from my epitome. It remains for me to deal, however 
inadequately, with certain general impressions derived from this 
Conference, and with certain general principles of the movement 
which it represents and seeks to promote. No man can attend this 
gathering of leaders from many parts of this land, and witness 
their earnestness and hear their fair-minded discussions, without 
realizing that the Conference sets its face against sectionalism and 
is animated by a sincere spirit of fraternity and genuine national 
patriotism. Though coming from different sections, the members 
of this Conference are concerned with subjects which fundamentally 
are independent of geography — the subjects of manhood, philan- 
thropy, truth and righteousness. Seeking to champion the realities 
of the moral order, they do not forget, and do not expect each 
other to forget, the traditions and convictions which they con- 
scientiously cherish as men from the North or the South ; yet they 
are united in a great common ideal and a great common devotion — 
a devotion to the truest welfare of an undivided nation, and an 
ideal which seeks a universal education of the children of this land 
in order to train them for worthy citizenship. The needs and rights 
of human children are the irresistible forces which draw and bind 
this body together — the children who are to constitute the nation 
in the future, the children who are to use for weal or woe the 
accumulated inheritance of the past, the children who are filled 
with mysterious possibilities and send forth their cry to know the 
way to life, the way to God, the way to godlike usefulness and 
employment of their being. If I read the Conference aright — and 
I think the interpretation is true — ^the North here comes with no 
mere critical spirit, but with the consciousness of a responsibility 
in common with the South to train the children of the nation for 
life and for loyalty, and the North here, in bringing co-operation, 
recognizes that the South has its peculiar problems and must itself 
be the leader in their solution. The volunteer spirit and the mis- 
sionary enthusiasm of this body belong to a patriotism which runs 
deeper than that of the mere political organization — a patriotism 



Davis Sessums. 173 

which is bent on human welfare and is busier with the ethics of 
citizenship than with partizan triumphs. It is not Utopian to hope 
that the influence of this spirit and enthusiasm, as it touches various 
communities, and even though this Conference has no concern with 
political parties, may help these communities to measure their 
parties by more ultimate standards, and to demand policies in- 
creasingly more hospitable to the intellectual and moral interests 
of the people. 

Certain watchwords, expressing the general aims and beliefs 
of the Conference, have rung out again and again as it has pro- 
ceeded on its way through successive sessions — watchwords like 
"universal education," "schools for all maintained by all," "knowl- 
edge not for selfishness , but for duty and service , " " universal educa- 
tion as the bulwark ot liberty and democracy"; and it is part of 
my duty to declare that these affirmations, in the thought of the 
leaders of this movement, do not mean any worship of mere brain 
culture apart from the development of manhood and character, 
nor any cheap and false championship of liberty as emancipation 
from dependence upon God and from service of God and rrian. 

Education, as here interpreted, is not an intellectual indulgence 
for a chosen few, nor is it a mere mechanical equipment of the selfish 
individual to win his daily bread ; but it is the leading forth of 
mind and conscience and will, it is the development of the being 
in order to the fulfilment of his relations with his fellow beings, it 
is the training of man as a social creature, it is preparation to 
keep the law of self-preservation in the sense of not becoming a 
burden upon society, but it is expansion beyond the life of self- 
preservation into the higher and saving life of service and co- 
operation. 

When Christ bade men to "deny" themselves, when He de- 
clared that "whosoever will seek to save his life shall lose it," He 
laid down a universal law for human life and revealed the universal 
standard by which men — if they would have life and have it more 
abundantly — must work in all the spheres of occupation. The 
secret of life is to die to self, to awake in the image of God's love 
and be satisfied; satisfied, because in that awakening into the 
divine kind of life the whip and sting of selfishness is abolished; 
satisfied, because in that uplifting the individual may find rest in 
a sense of consecrated usefulness as an instrument in the hand of 



174 The Conference for Education. 

God; satisfied, because in that enlarging the individual transcends 
the lesser self and wins the vaster self which by sympathy and 
helping work shares the wide life of the human world. Despite 
the competitions and combinations through which selfish individ- 
ualism under many guises is abroad in the world to-day, the ancient 
truth that man is the keeper of his brother-man is in these times 
rolling into human hearts in a rising flood. The interdependence 
and solidarity of humanity are daily being demonstrated anew as 
the world grows smaller under encompassing hands of science, as 
the ends of the earth are coupled together, as human desires swell 
and mankind are packed yet closer and closer, either to trample each 
other down or to survive together in a kingdom of love ; and to the 
Christian's faith and the idealist's dream the man of science is also 
adding his testimony that the law of brotherhood is the appointed 
law for man and will at last invincibly prevail. 

The co-operative principle and habit is really the cement of 
society; competition develops individual powers; co-operation 
develops social relations. As society advances from barbarism to 
civilization, men compete less and co-operate more. The principle 
of competition is the law of the survival of the fittest ; it is the law 
of plants and brutes and brutish men; but it is not the highest 
law of civilized society; another and higher principle, the principle 
of good-will, the principle of mutual help, begins at length to 
operate. The struggle for existence, as Mr. Fiske says, must go on 
in the lower regions of organic life; "but as a determining factor 
in the highest work of evolution, it will disappear " with the progress 
of the race. 

Therefore, the movement which interprets education as the 
development of moral manhood and true social character, and 
seeks to promote the extension of that education universally to the 
children of this land, is in league with the divine logic of history. 
But these social virtues, this equipment for citizenship, the train- 
ing of conscience, the establishment of morality, the spread of the 
"enthusiasm for humanity," require the foundation, the sanction, 
the inspiration of religion, for their realization; and disappointment 
and defeat await any dream for human good which would support 
civilization on any other basis than faith in God, and equally await 
any plan of education which may be framed by believers in God , 
and yet from which religious influence is omitted. If education 



Davis Sessums. 175 

be heralded as the chief need of man, the contention is mistaken 
unless education be taken to include the realization of man's de- 
pendence upon and responsibility to God, unless education be 
understood to embrace the saving process in which the Spirit of 
God is shed abroad in man's spiritual nature, teaching him to call 
God Father, and in the power and type of the Divine Son, Christ, 
to mount up into the image of God and the liberty that belongs to 
the sons of God. If education be viewed in that light, then no 
conflict obtains between education and salvation as to whether of 
them twain is the chief need of man ; because they are thus brought 
into true correlation, and education is seen to be in part a saving 
process which leads to the knowledge and love of God, and salvation 
is seen to be in part an educational process which develops the 
faculties of man to their highest exercise and their divinely in- 
tended uses. Because man is a person and not merely a mind or a 
physical power, his end is neither simply to know abstract truth nor 
to handle a tool, but to hold relations with other persons — to live 
in love and obedience to the Infinite Divine Person who gave him 
being, by whose love he lives, whose minister to other men he is 
commissioned to be, and in the sharing of whose work rests the 
glory of his destiny ; to live also with his fellow men in that love 
and mutual service in which they shall represent to each other the 
good-will of their Creator, their common Divine Father. 

Citizenship in the republic of men must be builded upon 
citizenship in the Kingdom of God as the source of its laws and 
ideals; the fulfilment of the law of brotherhood between human 
beings is alone possible where men are knitted together under the 
authority of that fatherhood of God which reveals the rights and 
duties of men; the social conscience can alone find its support, its 
restraint, its consecration in Him who is the eternal Righteousness 
and Love. 

In the spirit which pervades this Conference, in manifold utter- 
ances made from its platform during the course of its history, stead- 
fast assertion has been made of these religious foundations of edu- 
cation and social duty ; and among these utterances none is more 
striking than the following from Dr. Abbott : 

"Nothing is education but that which out of a boy or a girl 
makes a man or a woman with wisdom to see the truth, with con- 



176 The Conference for Education. 

science to enforce duty, with inspiration to service, with manhood 
within because God is within." 

In a day when freedom of thought is taken by many to mean 
mental irresponsibihty and critical indifferentism toward religion; 
in a day when with many education is so far sundered from sec- 
tarianism and so far centered on the study of material facts and 
forces that it is cut loose from its spiritual bearings; in a day, 
however, when the really dominant philosophy of education is 
essentially reverent and religious in tone, the general attitude of 
this Conference concerning the relation of education and morality 
to faith cannot but be widely helpful, and prompts the hope that 
its influence may encourage many teachers to fulfil their work in 
deepened religious spirit. 

In seeking to serve the republic by promoting universal 
education this body, as I understand its discussions, gives as little 
sanction to false ideas of democracy as it does to selfish interpre- 
tations of education and irreligious or non-religious interpretations 
of the basis of morality. The democracy into whose citizenship 
the children of this land are to be trained is not like that which the 
"red fool fury of the Seine" endeavored to establish; not one in 
which equality is a ruthless stripping of many to gorge some ; not 
one in which fraternity undergoes a ghastly travesty into indiffer- 
ence or hate ; not 'one in which liberty means unhindered selfishness 
crushing out competitors. Amid the other meanings of a true 
democracy it is to be understood to signify not a social order in 
which individuals combine together merely for defense against 
each other, merely for such protection that each may be free to 
work out remorselessly his own selfish advantage, but it is an order 
where men combine for the distinct and positive purpose of mutual 
helpfulness and co-operation, so that the progress may be com- 
munity progress. It signifies an order where freedom is not im- 
munity from law and power, is not irresponsibility and self-ag- 
grandizement, but where power prompts to duty, where freedom 
is such self -driven obedience that the need of external compulsion 
passes away, where men obey the king who sits on the throne of 
conscience, where the social fabric is indestructible because rooted 
in the free integrity of its citizens. It signifies an order where there 
is a deliberate effort to put into practice the law of loving one's 
neighbor as one's self; where equality means protection in the right 



Davis Sessiiiiis. 177 

development of individuality, universal amenability to law and 
the universal obligation of social service; where the standard of 
value is not coin nor blood, but righteousness of character. How- 
ever far this republic may still be from ideal conditions, the people 
of the United States have, on the whole, more nearly solved the 
problem of .self-government than any other of the peoples of the 
earth. It is the destiny and call of the nation steadily to advance 
bev(^nd the state of competitive and self -preserving individualism 
in politics and industry, steadily to apply in politics and industry 
the standards and principles of Christian ethics, and thus move on- 
ward to that liberty in which men shall transcend the impulse of 
wrong-doing or indifiference to their fellows and be busy with the 
work of positive and productive good-will. Among the forces 
directed toward this true social advance this Conference, with its 
advocacy of the education of manhood for the obligations of 
citizenship, must be reckoned as having an eminent place and as 
achieving a constructive work. 

The question of religious teaching in the common schools is 
one upon which X may be permitted a few words. Concerning the 
public-school system itself, it is axiomatic and incontestable that 
the community organization and purposes of the system are to be 
inviolably preserved. The schools, however much they may be 
aided by special local taxation, are primarily to be maintained as 
a co-operative movement by the whole people for common welfare , 
maintained so that the children of the nation may learn therein 
the lesson not only of independence but also of interdependence, 
not only of liberty but also of social responsibility and service; 
maintained so that the children of the nation, who are of many 
tongues and races and creeds, may be trained into the duties of a 
loyal citizenship and away from the factional subdivisions which 
tend to social disintegration. It is axiomatic and incontestable 
that freedom of conscience is to be inviolably guarded; that the 
public system of education must not be permitted to become a 
sectarian propaganda; that sectarian schools are not to be sup- 
ported by any prorating of public educational funds on the theory 
that such institutions may be accepted as substitutes for common 
schools. It is to be admitted that, even while sectarian dogmatic 
teaching is barred from the public schools, still they are reached 
in many indirect ways by the influence of the Christian religion, 



1 78 The Conference for Education. 

which touches them through Christian environment and the per- 
sonalities of Christian teachers. The following utterance of a well- 
known authority upon education is worthy of remembrance: 

"If it be conceded that effective moral training is the central 
duty of the public school, it must also be conceded that whatever 
is an essential means to such training should have due place in its 
instruction and discipline. 

"At least three avenues are open for the introduction of religious 
ideas and sanctions into all our schools. These are sacred song, 
the literature of Christendom, and, best of all, faithful and fearless 
Christian teachers, the living epistles of the Truth. Against these 
there is no law." 

While this indirect religious influence does obtain, and while 
the non-sectarian character of the schools is steadfastly to be pre- 
served, still the beneficent sway of further Christian influence is 
needed. Whether Utopian or not, we may, at least, cherish the 
hope that after a while Christian unity will so develop that some 
great truths of Christianity will be viewed as lifted out of the 
sectarian category ; will be considered by universal assent to be as 
definitely known as certain truths in history or science, and will 
be included in the education of children, without violence to indi- 
vidual or sectarian conscience, as a priceless treasure received from 
God and the chiefest inheritance to be transmitted from generation 
to generation. How great a consummation it would be if the chil- 
dren of the land could fully learn that, while the state and the 
common school are separate from the church, still all these insti- 
tutions have a mission from God ; could learn that the school has 
a right and duty to give teaching concerning God; could learn that 
the kingdom of God has an authority to wield and a glorifying influ- 
ence to bring to state and school; could learn that, at least, from 
one point of view, the church is the spiritual organ of the nation, 
charged to preserve the ideals and to do a special service in extend- 
ing the kingdom of God over all human life, and could, therefore, 
come to their place and fulfil their partjn the church as naturally 
and as loyally as they live and serve in society and their daily work. 

Into the subject of negro education there is neither need nor 
time for me to enter at any length ; and it is still less my purpose 
to attempt to discuss the general problem of the relation of the 
black and white races. But touching the suggestion sometimes 



Davis Sessitiiis. 179 

made that unwillingness on the part of the South to the advance- 
ment of the negro race would imply doubt and fear as to the superiority 
and supremacy of Anglo-Saxon intelligence and character, I am 
prompted to say that the South does not oppose the just advance- 
ment of the negro, nor does it fear that Anglo-Saxon intelligence 
and character will be outstripped in any racial competition. The 
South fundamentally believes that character and intelligence 
should have supremacy in civic affairs ; it has memory of a tragic 
time when the just supremacy of these forces was subverted by 
politicians; and it is unalterably unwilling for politics — and espe- 
cially that kind of politics which cannot rightly claim the name of 
philanthropy — again to imperil that just supremacy. Though it 
insists upon the separateness of the races, the heart of the South 
is not chilled to the pathos of the negro's position; it believes its 
friendship for the black man is better than that which thrust on 
him a citizenship for which he was not prepared; and it believes 
that it has the best understanding of the racial problem and can 
give the best guidance toward its solution. Upon the side of the 
negro himself the truth must be learned that the right of representa- 
tion involves the possession of some essential worth which deserves 
to be represented; that citizenship is a duty and a right to be 
realized through character and intelligence, and not a privilege 
to be received artificially and employed without responsibility. He 
needs further to emancipate himself from the mere political agi- 
tator who seeks his vote on the plea of the gratitude due to the 
party of emancipation, and to develop a more intelligent sympathy 
with the white men of the South and more intelligent interest and 
industry for the welfare of the section with w^hose economic prosper- 
ity his own fortunes are so closely united. 

The South has demonstrated its good-will and determination 
concerning the education of the negro by the expenditure which it 
has made for that cause, and intending to continue that work it 
emphasizes with wise judgment the imperative necessity of agri- 
cultural and industrial training for that race, with primary intel- 
lectual education. Beyond this provision for practical equipment, 
necessity likewise exists for institutions of higher learning which 
shall prepare capable and safe teachers and guides to this people ; 
and if to these higher schools, or to colleges provided by this race 
itself, individuals of this industrial class apply other than those 



i8o The Conference for Education. 

seeking the teacher's work, and if these individuals can and will 
use such higher education for their own good and that of society, 
let us wish them prosperous ascent up the steep of all knowledge 
that will make for excellence of life. 

The assertion of the desirabilty of universal education is some- 
times shadowed by a fear lest, if all men have knowledge, humble 
labor may become despised and discontentment grow rank in an 
overeducated world. The answer is that true education builds not 
merely knowledge but character, not pride but the spirit of social 
service; enables men to see that all work done in the real service 
of humanity possesses dignity ; sheds a new light over all the fields 
of human energy ; makes the toiler ready for his task, and sustains 
him with the just hope that he fills a worthy place in the universal 
plan wherein God makes man to be the servant of man. 

In the progress of history each age makes its characteristic 
contributions, and in this time no characteristic is more positive 
and striking than the growth of the social spirit and principle as 
opposed to the individualistic standard in government, industry 
and religion. The whole and not the individual is coming more and 
more to be seen as the unit upon which all problems of society and 
life are to be solved. 

The political question is settled, and democracy is the answer 
— however slow the movement amidst many peoples. Political econ- 
omy has become ethical, seeking not merely to deal with the 
acquisition of wealth but with its just distribution with a view to 
the highest welfare of society. A renewed yet most ancient inter- 
pretation of Christianity seeks not simply the salvation of the 
individual but that the individual shall be a worker with the 
Saviour in the redemption of all mankind, and it seeks to extend 
this redemption not only to the souls but to the bodies and minds 
of them that sit in darkness and suffer want. It seeks to establish 
the kingdom of God amid the practical affairs of men as it is in 
heaven, to effect the social extension of the Gospel, to build up 
that social order where men shall live by the law of righteousness, 
in the bond of peace and love, and for the joy of the whole people 
of God. Amongst the beneficent forces which, despite the innumer- 
able powers of evil that still make headway upon the earth, are 
uniting to uplift the hopes and lives of men to the vision of a human 
society ordered in good-will and rescued from waste^ the church.,, 



Ritfus N. Rhodes. i8i 

the home, the school, remain supreme. And in this land, and in all 
the lands through these three spheres, may the glory of enlighten- 
ment, obedience and love continually spread, drawing men steadily 
on to the great day when 

The war-drums shall be heard no longer, and the battle-flags be 
furled, 
In the Parliament of man, the Confederation of the world. 

The President of the Conference: We will now hear from Gen. 
Rufus N. Rhodes, of the city of Birmingham. 

RUFUS N. RHODES. 

Mr. President, and Ladies and Gentlemen of the Conference 
for Education in the South: I want to assure you all, both our 
visitors and our people, that the performance of the pleasant task 
assigned me will take only a moment or two. 

The local executive committee have conferred upon me the great 
honor in the name of the citizens of Birmingham, Mr. President, 
of thanking you and your associates for having held a session of the 
Conference in this city. These meetings will be historical, for the 
expression of the speakers will prove to be inspirations to duty now 
and for many days to come. An immediate result will be a declar- 
ation by the fathers of this Jefferson County before June shall slip 
away, in favor of local taxation for educational purposes. And the 
example of Jefferson, the county having the largest population and 
paying the largest amount of taxes in Alabama, will encourage 
similar action from one end of the state to the other, and an era 
of intelligence and progress and happiness will dawn upon our 
people such as they have never known before. I wish to say, sir, 
that the people of Birmingham and of Alabama, and indeed of the 
South, are delighted to have among them their brethren of the 
North, and the East, and the West. 

If we knew one another better, the problems of the North (and 
the North has problems) and the problems of the East and the West, 
and the problems of the South would be dissectionalized and be- 
come problems of America; problems that could be and would be 
solved easily and promptly by the united wisdom, influence and 
patriotism of the American people. If we knew one another better 
we would soon come to know the truth and justice, law and order, 



1 82 The Conference for Education. 

personal purity and righteousness, of our people everywhere. If 
we knew one another better we would love one another better, and 
your burdens and our burdens would be lighter, and your joys 
and our joys would be greater, because we would march as a solid 
phalanx of American people to the highest, the greatest and holiest 
victory for the better-ment of ourselves and for the uplifting of the 
nation. , 

Mr. President, these visits are delightful, fruitful of benefit to 
all of us. Words cannot express how the good people of our com- 
munity have enjoyed the presence of you and your friends and 
associates here. We trust that you in some small part have enjoyed 
your stay in Alabama, and in Birmingham, as we have. I know 
our people pray for your safe return to your homes. We want you 
to come again whenever you can, collectively or individually. A 
genuine cordial Southern welcome always awaits you. 

The President of the Conference : My last official act concerns 
the notice given a little while ago. I said that at the close of this 
meeting the ushers would stand at the door and receive such cards 
as may be given to them. 

And now Dr. Phillips, Gen. Rhodes and members of the com- 
mittee that has so splendidly organized this Conference, ladies and 
gentlemen of Birmingham, time does not permit any extended 
reply to the kind words we have just heard. There are pilgrims 
here who must seek their one-room cabins, and although they do 
not go away sad, they must within a comparatively few minutes, 
certainly within much less than an hour, move away from this place 
which in these few days has been the happy home of not only the 
party that I happen to represent, but of a great many more. There 
are no words that can express our thanks for your graceful and 
delightful hospitality. We are going away from here very much 
instructed by what we have heard and seen, but we are going away 
from here with something far richer than that, with hearts filled 
with gratitude, with sympathies that have been broadened; and 
we will be the better for it, each man and each woman through all 
the future. I am very sure that from this Conference, as from 
others, there will be growing up personal friendships — ties that 
shall always bind to the city of Birmingham the many people 
from the various places represented in this company. 



Rnfits N. Rhodes. 183 

As soon as we receive the benediction from Bishop Lawrence 
of Massachusetts, the Seventh Conference for Education in the South 
will have come to its end. 

The benediction was then pronounced by the Rt. Rev. William 
Lawrence, D.D , of Massachusetts, and the Seventh Conference 
for Education in the South was declared adjourned. 



Notice. 

the eighth conference for education in the south will meet 
in the city of columbia, south carolina, april 26 to april 28, igos. 

the conferenc e meets in columbia by invitation of the gov- 
ernor of south carolina, the legislature of south carolina, the 
state department of education, the educational institutions of 
columbia, the mayor, the city council, and the columbia chamber 
of commerce. 



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